‘Ddu-Du Ddu-Du’ Becomes The First K-Pop Group Music Video To Reach 2 Billion Views On YouTube

K-Pop songs, they've come a long way.

What began in the 1990s, "Hallyu," or the Korean wave as people call it, shows how the South Korean pop culture has grown in prominence to become a major driver of global culture, seen in everything from K-Pop to K-Dramas to Korean skincare, to Korean food, and more.

And when it concerns K-Pop, it has become a truly global phenomenon thanks to its distinctive blend of addictive melodies, slick choreography and production values

On YouTube, the first major K-Pop wave was caused by Psy.

Psy's Gangnam Style music video was the first K-Pop song to reach 1 billion views on YouTube, and was also the first K-Pop song to reach 2 billion views on YouTube.

Due to the K-Wave hype that happened after that, many popular K-Pop group music videos have reached the 1 billion views milestone with relative ease. This left a void between them, and 2 billion views, until Blackpink Ddu-Du Ddu-Du finally surpassed it.

Blackpink is a South Korean K-Pop girl group formed by YG Entertainment, consisting of members that include: Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé, and Lisa.

The group debuted in August 2016, and quickly became one of the top K-Pop stars ever, by becoming first in many international music charts.

And "Ddu-Du Ddu-Du," is the band's song released on June 15, 2018, along with the release of the band's first Korean EP Square Up.

A Japanese version of the single was released in August 2018.

Described as a pop rap song infused with trap beats and bubblegum pop sounds, the track was, and still is a commercial success in South Korea.

With a certified double platinum for streaming and platinum for digital sales by the Korea Music Content Association (KMCA), the song was further certified gold in the United States and Japan and silver in the United Kingdom.

With so many accolades and recognition, "Ddu-Du Ddu-Du" music video that was uploaded to the group's official YouTube channel on the same day of its release, soon became the most viewed online video in the first 24 hours by a Korean act, and the second most watched music video of all time within 24 hours.

And this time, the group's achievement for reaching 2 billion views on YouTube was noted by their music label YG Entertainment on its official Twitter account.

Read: BLACKPINK's 'How You Like That' Breaks Three Guinness World Records On YouTube

It's worth noting that many of Blackpink's music videos have reached astounding numbers.

For example Shut Down music video surpassed 300 million views on YouTube, after just 109 days on the platform.

On the same day, the choreography video for Blackpink's member Lisa’s solo song Money surpassed 100 million views on YouTube, according to YG Entertainment.

Lisa's song marks the 38th YouTube video for Blackpink and its members to surpass 100 million views.

"The explosive number of views on our videos is because we could practice with our members in a free atmosphere in the practice rooms," said YG Entertainment in a press release. “It was also achieved by Lisa’s performance skills and high-quality music.”

It's also worth noting that it was "Gangnam Style" that "broke" YouTube because at that time, YouTube was using the 32-bit integer, which has a maximum possible limit of 2,147,483,647 views, which "Gangnam Style" surpassed.

"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. 'Gangnam Style' has been viewed so many times we have to upgrade!" said Google.

To deal with "Gangnam Style", YouTube was forced to upgrade its view counter from 32-bit to 64-bit, which can handle 9,223,372,036,854,775,807 views, or more than 9 quintillion views.

At this time, "Gangnam Style" has garnered over 4.6 billion views.

Further reading: A Café In Thailand Closed After Owner Tried To Sell A Toilet Seat Used By Lisa From Blackpink