According to the Daily Download, the meteor that streaked across the Russian sky and
exploded last week has quickly become one of the most viewed events in Internet
history. Millions of people huddled around computers to view footage of the
meteor, which measured approximately 56 feet in diameter and injured
nearly 1,000 people living near Chelyabinsk, Russia.
The New York Times reports that the most-viewed of all the
videos, uploaded by the cable channel Russia Today, has
received more than 26 million views. On Tuesday, Visible Measures reported that
the meteor videos had topped 138 million views on the video-sharing sites it
tracks, such as YouTube and DailyMotion. Visible Measures declared that the
meteor was “the fastest video event ever to reach 100 million views.”
Ben Jacobs of the Daily Download wrote on his blog that the meteor
videos gained 73 million views on Saturday, setting a record for a one-day total.
Visible Measures indicated that the meteor easily topped other Internet
fascinations of the past. “Kony previously held that record with 41.3 million
views in a single day. Red Bull’s Stratos comes in a close third with 40.9
million views.”
I’ll leave it to the YouTube aficionados to understand
what that all means.
Incredibly, the meteor is light years away from setting
the record for most online views overall. It’s still more than a billion views
behind the music video for  Gangnam Style for
total views.