Yahoo News One Direction’s Tenth Anniversary Prompts 468% YouTube Catalog Spike
One Direction’s “hiatus” hasn’t stifled its streaming success.
The band’s music catalog experienced a 468% increase on YouTube Music in response to the band’s 10th anniversary on July 23, despite members going their own ways in 2015.
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“10 Years of One Direction,” the first video uploaded to the group’s YouTube channel since early 2016, has also garnered over 14 million views since its release. Days before the group’s actual anniversary, fans on Twitter managed to trend the hashtag #10YearsOfOneDirection to express their excitement and theories about whether anything would occur on the much-anticipated decennial.
Simon put 5 strangers together as a group on Friday 23rd July, 2010 at 8:22pm
That was the start of the biggest boyband in the world called One Direction
https://t.co/51qjx788F4#10YearsOfOneDirection
— One Direction Memories (@1D_flashback) July 22, 2020
The official Twitter account for One Direction also pushed the hashtag throughout the week, and even announced a YouTube release of “Where We Are Tour – Live from San Siro Stadium” on July 28, making the concert footage available for 24 hours.
Former band members contributed to the hype generated around their band’s 10-year anniversary through social media, posting messages that generated millions of likes. Only Zayn Malik, who left the band months before it broke up, avoided posting about the special date.
The band’s YouTube channel also uploaded a variety of other videos, including 4K-quality versions of old music videos and audios of songs from past albums. The “What Makes You Beautiful” 4K video alone gained more than five million streams. Over the week of celebrations, One Direction’s channel saw an influx of over a million new subscribers, as well.
The band’s YouTube Music success came amidst a competitive week. Their songs competed against the likes of Taylor Swift, who announced a surprise album that dropped the day after One Direction’s anniversary. The album, “Folklore,” brought the one-day streams to 48 million across her catalog.
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