Adele’s new single hits 1m plays…an hour

Adele’s latest single “Hello” is blowing up. But you probably knew that. It’s everywhere right now, but is showing especially big growth on YouTube.

According to a press release issued by the online video giant “Hello” had been viewed 50 million times within 48 hours of going live. That makes it the biggest debut of any video on YouTube in 2015 and one of the most-watched music video debuts of all time.

On those two days YouTube says, “adele hello” was by far its top search. The video garnered as many as 1.6 million views in a single hour, averaging over 1 million views per hour over the first two days.

For comparison, the release of the massively anticipated full trailer for “Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens” peaked at 1.2 million views per hour.

Read more: Billion-view YouTube videos are happening faster than ever

Meanwhile, Justin Bieber scored another massive debut — third-largest music video debut of 2015 — and did so… without being in the video. The release — designated as a “dance video” — for the song “Sorry” was seen approximately 20 million times in its first 48 hours.

Both releases also helped grow these artists’ respective YouTube audiences considerably too, with Adele gaining over 400,000 subscribers over the weekend and Bieber picking up over 150 000 in the three days following his new video.

Here’s a reminder what all the fuss is about: