No matter what metrics anybody looks at, one thing is clear: BTS’s “Butter” is a massive hit on every platform it’s available on. The track is racking up incredible streaming sums and is surely selling incredibly well, but it’s on YouTube where the tune’s official video is performing not just better than any other upload on the site, but leading the charge by a huge margin.
“Butter” ends its first week of availability as the most-watched video on YouTube, and it wasn’t a close race at all. The must-see clip racked up an incredible 235 million views in its first week on the platform, according to the site’s weekly charts. That number incorporates watches from all countries, and it’s clear that the band has fans in every nation.
BTS’s latest monster release is in a very, very distant first place among all the most popular videos on YouTube in the past week, as the title that winds up at No. 2, Jubin Nautiyal’s “Lut Gaye,” only managed to earn 41.4 million plays in the most recent tracking frame. That means the South Korean septet’s new single beat the second-most-popular release on the platform this time around more than five times over.
As if coming in at No. 1 wasn’t enough of a show of dominance for BTS, the band also debuts another new clip at No. 4 on the weekly ranking of the most popular videos on YouTube. The vocal act’s performance of “Butter” at the Billboard Music Awards racked up an impressive 29.6 million plays, enough to make it the fourth-most-watched post of the week.
All the views “Butter” collected during its first week out will help it earn a lofty debut on the Hot 100 next week, as plays on that site are counted into where a track ranks, alongside proper downloads, streams on platforms like Spotify and Apple Music and radio play. “Butter” is largely expected to open in first place on the all-genre tally, and if it does, it will become the K-pop group’s fourth leader on the chart and their third song to open in first place.