Psy's 'Gangnam Style' Forces YouTube To Expand View Counter Capacity

Contrary to popular belief, Psy did not break the Internet this week and neither did Kim Kardashian's butt, in case you're just joining us.

But K-pop's most recognizable international star, Psy, did add another milestone to the long list of records set by his music video "Gangnam Style," the most watched clip in the history of the World Wide Web.

By reaching an astounding 2.1 billion YouTube views, (2,147,483,647 plays, to be exact), Psy has forced YouTube's programmers to reconfigure their view counters in order to record such a high number.

In the meantime they have added an animation known as an Easter egg in lieu of the normal view counter for "Gangnam Style."

But in a statement via email on Wednesday to KpopStarz, YouTube spokesman Matt McCleron pointed out that the company had identified the need to update their view counter for some time.

"Nothing actually ever broke," the email read. "We saw this coming a couple months ago and updated our systems to prepare for it."

According to a post to YouTube's official Google+ account on Monday, the Easter egg, which features a number animation that ends by displaying the maximum number of views that the previous YouTube view counter could handle, is merely a celebration of this important milestone for the video sharing website.

"We never thought a video would be watched in numbers greater than a 32-bit integer (2,147,483,647 views), but that was before we met Psy," the statement read. 

"'Gangnam Style' has been viewed so many times we had to upgrade to a 64-bit integer (9,223,372,036,854,775,808)! Hover over the counter in PSY's video to see a little math magic and stay tuned for bigger and bigger numbers on YouTube."

Though after the counter's ability to display positive and negative numbers in the animation, Huffington Post reader Ryan Compton of Indiana is wondering why a so-called "signed" integer, was ever being used by YouTube to being with.

"Why is a view counter using a signed integer?" Compton wrote on Wednesday in the website's comment's section.

"Considering that a video isn't going to receive negative views, why not leave the counter unsigned? Give the man a chance to reach 4,294,967,295!"

Reader Melvin Hollins of Rhode Island points out a strange similarity between the 32-bit integer's maximum number for the view counter and the online role-playing game "RuneScape."

"If you've ever played the game 'RuneScape,' the max amount of gold allowed in that game per account is 2.147 billion," Hollins wrote on Wednesday.

"This number is nearly the exact same for the YouTube counter. Is there something going on here with max number counters, or nah?"

Tags
Gangnam Style
YouTube
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