

The music video of "Gangnam Style" by South Korean singer-rapper Psy ranked first on YouTube's all-time list of most-viewed videos, the service said in its Web site Saturday.



Drawing 803.69 million hits as of 6:30 p.m. Saturday, the viral video beat out U. S. singer Justin Bieber's "Baby" which garnered 803.65 million views, YouTube said in its latest update.



After topping the 800 million mark earlier in the day, "Gangnam Style" quickly climbed up to take the No. 1 position of YouTube launched in 2005.

While "Baby" made its debut on the Web site nearly three years ago, Psy's "Gangnam Style" hit YouTube's online video streaming service only four months ago on July 15.



Gangnam Style also set the Guinness World Record of "the most liked video" on YouTube by receiving 2,295,231 likes from viewers on Sept. 20. The number of likes has now risen to 5.34 million.



Gangnam Style has been viewed in 223 countries, with 154 million hits recorded in the United States, 40.54 million in Thailand, 37.59 million in South Korea, 32.39 million in Turkey and 30.95 million in Brazil.



"Views of Gangnam Style were not concentrated in specific countries," an official at Psy's management company YG Entertainment said. "Countries in America, Europe and Asia were evenly ranked in the top 10 list. Even unheard-of countries, like Eritrea, were included in the list."



Of the viewers, 61.6 percent were men, while those aged between 13 and 17 represented the biggest group.



Boosted by the popularity of the video, the song has topped charts from 30 countries, including Britain, and occupied the No. 2 slot on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 for seven straight weeks.



Earlier this month, Psy performed "Gangnam Style" at the 19th-annual MTV EMA broadcast live to 60 countries, also a first for Korean artists.



The show proved the K-pop star's global popularity as he was among the 10 world celebrities chosen to do a countdown from 10 and appeared on a special video shown at the event for honoring late U.S. pop star Whitney Houston.



The K-pop star recently unveiled plans for his next song in an interview on U.S. cable network CNN, saying the lyrics will be a mix of English and Korean. (Yonhap)