Linkin Park

Linkin Park

Linkin Park have become the first rock band to pass a billion views on their official YouTube channel.

They might be the butt of many a joke, but with more than double the YouTube views and Facebook fans of their nearest challengers (and to describe Coldplay as rock is definitely pushing it) Linkin Park are by far the world’s most popular rock act.

Green Day and Red Hot Chilli Peppers are lagging far behind, with 245 million and 327 million views respectively.

Their video for New Divide (the band’s theme from the second Transformers film) has gathered over 131 million views on its own, more than the Foo fighter’s entire YouTube channel  or The Kings of Leon and 30 Second’s To Mars’ combined YouTube views.

It’s not just in the rock charts that Linkin Park top the social media charts, with the rock outfit also have more Facebook fans than either Taylor Swift or Beyonce.

The band isn’t just popular online as their debut album Hybrid Theory crossed over the 10 million sales mark in America this August. Worldwide, the album’s clocked up 24 million views, with the follow up Meteora selling 16 million copies across the globe.

Oddly enough, it’s still the only album of theirs not to hit number one in the U.S. chart, as the other four have all sat on top of the charts (as well as the Collision Course EP with Jay-Z), with three topping the UK charts too.