http://https://youtu.be/JGwWNGJdvx8?t=16
Ed Sheeran has been breaking records left and right since the release of his third album, Divide (styled ÷) on Friday (March 3). Two days after the CD release, Sheeran reached yet another incredible feat: 1 billion YouTube views, on just Divide songs alone.
After releasing lyric videos for the two initial Divide singles, “Shape of You” and “Castle on the Hill,” on Jan. 6 (and official videos for both shortly after), the British singer-songwriter had already garnered hundreds of millions of views before the album even dropped. Upon the release of Divide, Sheeran put out official audio videos for the other 14 tracks on the deluxe version of the album, which pushed him to the billion views milestone on Sunday (March 5).
Along with the impressive numbers of views, Sheeran’s YouTube channel has also gained more than 3 million subscribers in the last two months alone. With this kind of success, Lyor Cohen, YouTube’s Global Head of Music, couldn’t help extending his congratulations to Sheeran.
“Ed Sheeran is one of the biggest stars in the world and his new album is his best yet,” Cohen said in a statement. “For years, he’s paired his songs with consistently creative music videos, so it’s great to see fans rushing to YouTube to watch them and show support for his new album.”
The lyric and official videos for “Shape of You” make up more than half of Sheeran’s billion Divide video views, with the lyric video sitting pretty at 395.4 million views and the official visual quickly approaching that mark with 296.2 million. Each of the Divide audio videos already have at least 3 million views each, with most garnering more than 5 million in just four days.
