BTS’ ‘Butter’ amasses 100 million views on YouTube in 21 hours

Korean boy band BTS’ new song “Butter” reached 100 million views in 21 hours after its release on YouTube. It took the shortest time among K-Pop music videos to record 100 million views. The song is the second English single after “Dynamite.” The lyrics say “I'll melt your heart” like smooth butter in rhythmical melodies. 　

According to entertainment agency Hybe, the music video was published on YouTube at 1:00 p.m. on Friday and reached 100 million views at 9:56 a.m. the next day. It took three hours less than the previous song “Dynamite” (24 hours), which had previously the shortest time record in reaching 100 million hits. 　

The band’s “Interlude: Shadow” music video, which had been uploaded in January last year, also reached 100 million views on Friday. The boy band now has 33 music videos on YouTube that have exceeded 100 million hits. 　

The number of viewers who watched it live was 3.9 million and this is the largest number of live viewers for a music video on YouTube. The Dynamite music video, which had been published in August last year, had 3 million live viewers.

The new song itself is a huge hit as well. The song was played 20.9 million times on Spotify, the largest music streaming platform in the world, on Friday when the song was released. The number of plays on Spotify is also the largest in history. The record previously belonged to Dynamite, which recorded 12.6 million plays in a day. Butter ranked first on Apple iTunes chart in 101 countries including the U.S. and the U.K. It ranked first on Korean music streaming platforms including Melon and Genie as well as on Japan’s Oricon Albums Chart. 　

BTS will showcase the first performance at the “2021 Billboard Music Awards,” which is one of the three music awards in the U.S., to be held at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Sunday (local time). The band has also become the most nominated K-Pop band of the award by being nominated in four sectors including the “top social artist” award.


hoho@donga.com