In death, David Bowie’s music may be more popular than ever: On Monday, just a day after he died, Bowie broke Vevo’s single-day record, which was previously held by Adele, the video-streaming site has announced. His entire catalogue saw a massive surge in streams on January 11, racking up 51 million views (Vevo’s YouTube views included) across his video oeuvre, a 5,198 percent week-to-week increase. Bowie’s likely final video for “Lazarus” (no other Blackstar videos have been confirmed) saw the biggest gain in views just days after its release, with 11.1 million views in one day (it’s currently nearing 19 million views on YouTube). Adele broke the Vevo record back on October 23, when the debut of her video for “Hello” pushed her catalogue to 36 million views.
On next week’s Billboard 200 chart, Bowie’s new and final album is expected to outperform Adele’s record-smashing 25 for the top spot, the first No. 1 debut in the U.S. of Bowie’s career. So, was David Bowie the king of music videos, as some have argued since his passing? For at least one day in 2016, he indisputably was.
