Gangnam Style didn't really break YouTube's view counter

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You've heard this one. Gangnam Style broke YouTube's view counter. It's a great story. It's just not what happened.

Every number a computer stores has a size. A signed 32-bit integer tops out at about 2 point 1 billion. One more, and in many programs it wraps around. Negative.

1 December 2014. YouTube posts on Google+. We never thought a video would pass a 32-bit integer. Then we met PSY. We have to upgrade! News sites run with it.

But here's the twist. Days later, a YouTube rep tells Variety, as The A.V. Club reports. The post was an easter egg. We updated the counter to 64-bit months ago.

The old ceiling. About 2 point 1 billion. The new one? About 9 point 2 quintillion. And YouTube says the switch happened months before the video got there.

Here's the old ceiling. By 5 December, over 2 point 15 billion views. Past it. And the counter just kept counting.

Every counter, every ID, every timestamp has a ceiling. Widen it while it's a quiet change. Not an emergency.

Full story in the article.