Gangnam Style YouTube viewsObjects launched into Earth orbit per year
Gangnam Style kept accumulating views and humanity kept launching objects into orbit between 2015 and 2023, and the two counters moved together (r = 0.958) in a harmony so persistent it starts to feel structural. The cumulative hit song refuses to conclude; the constellation refuses to stop expanding. Both have reached the point where nobody knows how to turn them off.
Gangnam Style crossed 5 billion YouTube views in 2022 (it had been at 2.4 billion in 2015), still accumulating tens of millions more per year simply from people checking if it's still up; orbital launches climbed from about 220 per year to over 2,400 in the same window, dominated by Starlink's scheduled cadence. Both are ratchets — cumulative counters that can only go up — and so any pair of them will produce an impressive correlation against any other pair. The deeper truth is that the 2010s invented several systems that are very hard to stop once started: pop cultural artifacts, satellite constellations, and the compound interest of sheer time.
A song plays on a loop somewhere. A satellite circles quietly overhead. Both are running without supervision.
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Want to learn more about why correlations like “Gangnam Style YouTube views” vs “Objects launched into Earth orbit per year” don't prove causation? Read our guide to statistical thinking.
