Metallica and Slipknot have emerged as the most-watched metal bands on YouTube worldwide, according to the streaming platform' weekly Music Chart.
Despite not having released any official music videos for several years, Metallica has amassed 29 million global views this week, mainly thanks to the band's ongoing stream of pro-shot live videos. Slipknot's clips, meanwhile, have been viewed 13.8 million times. Out of the two, however, only Metallica made YouTube's U.S. Top 100.
Drummer Lars Ulrich told us a while back that Metallica has always tried to stay engaged with its fans: “I try and make Metallica as fan friendly and as fan connected as possible and still within the understanding that musically what we do is about us. So it's like, if you're into the music we're doing and respect that we do the music for us, then if you want to be part of that ride then here's what we can try and offer you to be part of the Metallica family.”
Metallica finished second in the overall rock category, with Queen's nearly 43 million views leading the pack. Other big numbers were rung up by Guns N' Roses with 21.7 million views, AC/DC with 20 million, Skillet with 19 million and Green Day with 16.5 million.
In other YouTube news, the Linkin Park song “Valentine's Day” jumped a whopping 890 percent on — surprise, surprise — this year's Valentine's Day (Friday, February 14th). The track was one of the love songs with the highest spikes, according to a YouTube survey.