The mega-hit "Despacito" by the Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi has become the most watched video ever on YouTube with more than six billion views, the Google-owned service said Tuesday.

The video, first released in January 2017 by Fonsi and Puerto Rican rapper Daddy Yankee, already holds the record for the fastest two billion, three billion and four billion views  (272 days).

Fonsi's Spanish-language hit, whose English title is "Slowly", has had nearly two billion views more than its nearest challenger, "Shape of You", by the British singer Ed Sheeran.

The South Korean singer Psy was the first to cross the two-billion-views barrier on the platform with his "Gangnam Style" in 2012, which also set off a dance craze.

Psy is now fifth in the YouTube charts with 3.3 billion views.

 

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.