Rosé’s ‘APT.’ Reaches 2 Billion YouTube Views in Record Time — A Clean, Crowd-Proof Win for K-Pop
Blackpink's Rosé has crossed another global milestone: the music video for "APT."-her 2024 collaboration with Bruno Mars-has topped 2 billion YouTube views and did it faster than any K-pop video on record, according to multiple outlets tracking the count. The clip premiered on Oct. 18, 2024 and hit 2B roughly 335 days later, after reaching the first billion on Jan. 31, 2025-an unusually steep second-half surge that kept momentum alive well past the typical viral window.
The breakthrough cements "APT." as more than a fandom phenomenon. This month Rosé and Mars also took Song of the Year at the 2025 MTV VMAs-a first for any K-pop act-signaling mainstream recognition beyond platform metrics. Regionally, the single notched No. 1 on Australia's ARIA Singles Chart (first for a K-pop female soloist) and reached No. 1 on the Billboard Japan Hot 100, billed as the first Western-language track to lead the list in over a decade.
Part of the appeal is how local flavor travels. Built around a chant that nods to a Korean drinking-game riff on "apartment," the song leans into a bright, garage-band aesthetic that edits cleanly into TikTok and Shorts. Recent European entertainment coverage even surfaced an early demo version-before Mars's final topline-feeding a new wave of curiosity and playlisting as the 2B headlines rolled.
For industry watchers, the timeline is the lesson: a year-long, multi-phase campaign-MV, live clips, challenge content, festival and awards beats-can stretch a pop single's life far beyond its first quarter if the content stack keeps pace. The result is a rare case where speed (fastest to 2B for K-pop) and durability (sustained growth into late 2025) arrive together.
Bottom line: "APT." turned cultural specificity into a global hook, then backed it with charts and awards that travel. For K-pop, it's a clean template for solo-led crossovers-and for Rosé, a career marker that now reads: 2 billion views, record-time.
