Gangnam Style hits 2 billion views on YouTube

Psy’s Gangnam Style has become the first YouTube video to be watched more than 2 billion times.

The hit by the South Korean rapper from July 2012 sparked a worldwide dance craze.

Only Justin Bieber’s video for the track Baby, with one billion YouTube hits, comes anywhere near Gangnam Style‘s global appeal on the site.

Psy’s horse-dance has led to numerous tributes and parodies by everyone from Ban Ki Moon to prisoners in a Philippine jail.

His follow up song Gentleman also did well on YouTube, so far picking up almost 700 million views.

Gentlemen also holds the record for the most views in a day with 38 million.

After Justin Beiber a video called Charlie Bit My Finger – Again! is a distant third with 711 million views on YouTube.

In total Psy has three of the top 15 videos on the site.

The 36-year-old rapper spent much of last year on a world tour taking in the US, Europe and ending with a tour of Asia.

In the past, he described the difficulties of attempting to follow-up Gangnam Style.

“The problem is my music video is more popular than I am,” he said.

“So I’ve got to overcome my music video first.”

Last year Psy tweeted a photo of himself with his face covered calling it, “pain of creation”, and said the stardom has taken a toll.