Ariana Grande’s ‘Thank U, Next’ Music Video Broke Multiple YouTube Records!

We were dying waiting for the premiere of Ariana Grande’s “Thank U, Next” video, and it turns out we weren’t the only ones!

The video smashed YouTube’s all-time record for most views in the first 24 hours of release at 46 million views — beating the previous record: K-pop group BTS, which took in 45.9 million for their “Idol” music video last August. 

“Thank U, Next” also set the record for most-viewed video that used YouTube’s Premiere scheduling feature — with 829,000 viewers watching simultaneously at its peak, according to YouTube.

Ariana’s fans sent over 516,000 messages during the video debut, which was also a record for YouTube Premieres. The streaming service also noted that the initial traffic spike caused a delay in comments posting to the video. 

Just to give context, YouTube also released its previous ranking of the 10 most-viewed YouTube music videos in the first 24 hours. See below:

1. BTS, “Idol” – 45.9 million

2. Taylor Swift, “Look What You Made Me Do” – 43.2 million

3. Eminem, “Killshot” – 38.1 million

4. Blackpink, “Ddu-Du Ddu-Du” – 36.2 million

5. Psy, “Gentleman” – 36 million

6. BTS, “Fake Love” – 35.9 million

7. Twice, “Yes or Yes” – 31.4 million

8. Nicky Jam feat. J. Balvin, “X (EQUIS)” – 29.7 million

9. XXXTentacion, “Sad!” – 27.7 million

10. Adele, “Hello” – 26.3 million