Santos Rules YouTube’s Total Views Chart

Forget Taylor Swift, Beyonce and Katy PerryRomeo Santos is the real YouTube leader.

The 33-year-old Dominican American singer, the undisputed king of bachata, is also leader on YouTube, far outpacing several mainstream artists in terms of total views.

Romeo Santos

With more four billion total views (4,351,032,074, to be exact), Santos towers over Swift (over 3.7 billion), Beyoncé (over 2 billion), Perry (over 2.6 billion), Shakira (over 1.2 billion), and other mainstream pop artists.

YouTube based its total views on both official and fan-uploaded videos from September 2014 to June 30, 2015. Only videos claimed using “Content ID” get counted. The latter is a system used by copyright owners to identify and manage their content on YouTube. When a fan, for instance, uploads content matching a work an artist owns, the copyright owner gets to decide what happens to that video; options include blocking the video, monetizing on its views by running ads against it, and tracking the video’s viewership stats. Only copyright owners who own exclusive rights to a substantial body of original material that is frequently uploaded by the YouTube user community get a Content ID.

The latest YouTube data also shows where Santos’ fanbase views are coming from. Colombia is No. 1, with over 700 million views, followed by Mexico, Argentina, Ecuador and the U.S.

But Santos’ rule is equally impressive in his home state of New York, where, according to the Wall Street Journal’s recent Musical Map of New York City study, which used data from e-jukebox vendor TouchTunes, the Dominican American heartthrob is the most popular artist in over 50 city neighborhoods.

Recently, Santos also made Billboard history on the Hot Latin Songs chart with his smash “Propuesta Indecente,” the first-ever song to reach the 100th week mark on the chart.

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