BTS fans outraged over ‘On’ music video’s ‘deleted’ views on YouTube

BTS’s “On” music video (Image: screengrab from YouTube)

After South Korean boy band BTS premiered the music video for its track “On,” its fans went above and beyond by streaming it on YouTube to reach millions of views in just one day.

The video immediately became the biggest YouTube Premiere of all time according to Variety last Thursday, Feb. 27. However, the international boy group sensation’s fans claimed on Twitter that the video-streaming platform “deleted” some of its views.

The “On” music video portrayed a story of the idols reaching new heights, as seen on the group’s agency’s (Big Hit Labels) YouTube channel last Thursday. The music video showcased a quest-type adventure in a country setting paired with the song’s powerful lyrics, strong percussive instrumentation and the boy group’s perfectly synchronized choreography.

A few days after its release, “On’s” views were apparently “deleted.” As of this writing, BTS’s second promotional single for the album “Map of the Soul: 7” has 50,091,185 views, a number that is far from its supposed former status.

The video has already garnered 100 million views before the video even reached 24 hours, BTS fan @glossiejooni stated on Twitter today, Feb. 29. The fan took two photos of the music video’s view-count: the first showed “‘On’ Official MV” had 104,967,372 views 23 hours after its release. The second photo showed the same page, only that this time the views were depleted by more than half to 45 million views, a day after it premiered.

The hashtag #YouTubeExplainThis became one of the most trending topics on Twitter today as more fans questioned the missing views.

https://twitter.com/glossiejooni/status/1233535733207642112

A video from a certain @mk_0915’s TikTok account also shows how BTS’s “On” official music video drastically changed its numbers from over 83 million to 48 million on the “YouTube Live View Count,” as seen on one @Valeskaguzman12’s Twitter page today.

Do you think we are stupid? #YouTubeCorrupt #ARMYWantsTheViewsBack pic.twitter.com/cR6uGoFsGU

— Vale💚 (@Valeskaguzman12) February 28, 2020

Despite the seemingly fluctuating views, BTS’s music video already broke the record on the video-streaming platform. The music video brought together 1.54 million viewers on the site minutes after it was released, Variety reported. BTS fans also reached another record, as per Allkpop yesterday, Feb. 29, after getting a massive 10 million views within one hour and five minutes after the music video’s release.

The music video’s record to beat before “On” was apparently the boy group’s collaboration with American singer Halsey, “Boy With Luv,” which took two hours and 51 minutes to get 10 million views.

YouTube has yet to make a statement as of this writing. /ra

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