Despacito became the first song’s official music video to reach 3 billion views on YouTube in 2017. The Spanish-language hit was performed by Luis Fonsi featuring Daddy Yankee, and its record-breaking video reached the milestone on August 4, 2017.
Released in January 2017, the song combined reggaeton with Latin pop and quickly became an international phenomenon. A later remix featuring Justin Bieber helped it reach audiences beyond the Spanish-speaking music market, while the original video’s colorful Puerto Rican setting strengthened its cultural identity.
The wording can cause a small technical mix-up: the milestone applied to the YouTube music video, not to audio streams across every service. Despacito had already passed 1 billion views in April 2017 and 2 billion views later that year. It went on to become the first YouTube video to pass 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 billion views as well.
Its reign as YouTube’s most-viewed video eventually ended when Baby Shark overtook it in 2020, but Despacito remains the canonical answer for the 2017 three-billion-view record.