Linkin Park's Meteora Nears Three Billion Views

     March 20th is a special day. Five years ago, Chester Bennington celebrated what would be his final birthday; he would have been 46 today had he not tragically taken his own life on that summer 2017 day. However, the message that people only really die if they are forgotten has been perfectly exemplified by Chester Bennington's legacy, particularly his musical and charitable legacies, those that, with the exception of his family, were the most important to him.

     Recently, "Numb" became the second Linkin Park song to surpass a billion streams on Spotify after "In the End" achieved the same milestone less than a year ago; both songs have now achieved this milestone as well as that of a billion views on YouTube. Not only are these two songs the only Linkin Park songs to get this far, but they are also the only NU-METAL songs to do so, which truly proves that while this genre did not define Linkin Park, Linkin Park defined this genre.

     Numb is only one song on their album Meteora, which was arguably musically better than Hybrid Theory and sold nearly 30 million copies while topping the Billboard charts. Linkin Park's YouTube channel, which is about to hit 19 million subscribers, has been one facet of their legacy in the modern world, and Linkin Park's sophomore album is, by far, the most successful on this platform. "Somewhere I Belong" has attained 240 million views, "Faint" 345 million views, "Breaking the Habit" 280 million views, "From the Inside" 125 million views, and "Numb" 1.75 billion views.

     It is becoming increasingly obvious that "Numb" is a matter of months away from becoming Linkin Park's first song to surpass two billion views on YouTube, but it is even more obvious that Meteora is weeks away from surpassing three billion views. The aforementioned songs from the album have a combined total of 2.75 billion views, and these do not include the other songs that do not have music videos. When these are taken into account, the album has nearly 2.9 billion views. 

     Three billion views is a rare landmark for an album to cross and would be a first for Linkin Park. Four of Linkin Park's albums have surpassed one billion views while A Thousand Suns and One More Light are on track to do the same quite soon. As Chester's 46th birthday passes and the fifth anniversary of his death approaches, it is heartening to see that just one portion of one portion of one portion of his legacy is encountering historic success.