Back in August, Indian artist Badshah set a YouTube record of having the most views in the first twenty-four hours upon release, surpassing BTS' "Boy With Luv".

Badshah's MV for "Paagal" achieved 75 million views in the first twenty-four hours of release, which surpassed BTS "Boy With Luv" which had 74.6 million views. However, many people thought that Badshah achieved this record illegitimately.

Many people saw Badshah's music video via an advertisement on YouTube that placed "Paagal" video in between other popular videos. This led to tens of millions of views for "Paagal."

Because of the controversy, YouTube has decided that music videos using this method of targeted advertising will not count in the official view count for records. The view count will only come from organic means. YouTube wrote a blog post titled 'Maintaining credibility and consistency on YouTube: Revisions to YouTube Music Charts and 24-hour record debut policy' and wrote,



"Today, we’re sharing some important changes made to YouTube Music Charts, the go-to destination to see what’s popular, what’s rising and trending both locally and globally on YouTube, and updates to how we determine videos that are eligible for 24-hour record debuts on YouTube.



"YouTube Music Charts have become an indispensable source for the industry and the most accurate place for measuring the popularity of music listening behavior happening on the world’s largest music platform. In an effort to provide more transparency to the industry and align with the policies of official charting companies such as Billboard and Nielsen, we are no longer counting paid advertising views on YouTube in the YouTube Music Charts calculation. Artists will now be ranked based on view counts from organic plays.

Over the last few years, fans, artists, and their teams have touted the number of views a video receives on YouTube within the first 24 hours as the definitive representation of its instant cultural impact. It’s a great honor and one we take very seriously. As we look to maintain consistency and credibility across our platform, we’ve made some necessary revisions to our methodology for reporting 24-hour record debuts.



"Our goal is to ensure YouTube remains a place where all artists are accurately recognized and celebrated for achieving success and milestones. Videos eligible for YouTube’s 24-hour record debuts are those with the highest views from organic sources within the first 24 hours of the video’s public release. This includes direct links to the video, search results, external sites that embed the video and YouTube features like the homepage, watch next and Trending. Video advertising is an effective way to reach specific audiences with a song debut, but paid advertising views on YouTube will no longer be considered when looking at a 24-hour record debut. The changes will not impact YouTube’s existing 24-hour record debut holders."