One Direction's Best Song Ever Breaks Vevo Records

One Direction’s brand new single may actually be the best song ever. Just one day after the pop group released the music video for “Best Song Ever,” the single is crushing on VEVO, receiving 10.7 million total views during its first day live--the most ever received in a 24-hour period. At 6:13, the video is lengthy, but that hasn’t stopped a slew of people from giving it a watch. At the time of this writing, more than 14.2 million people have clicked the play button on the video streaming site.

The music video is a weird one. Unlike the group’s other freewheeling music videos, this one actually has some storytelling components. The video starts with costumed band members Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horn playing two movie executives—the former channeling Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder. The two are sitting in a room and discussing the brand new movie when the actual One Direction guys show up. What ensues is a fun-filled music video featuring storyboards and actually documentary-type footage. Once the guys get organized, some synchronized dancing is even thrown in.

We’ve known for a while that new music would be coming soon. The group is pulling a Justin Bieber or a Katy Perry, etc. and putting together a 3D theatrical release that will feature behind-the-scenes clips of the band, as well as some footage from tour dates. Thus, what we have here is an extremely effective marketing tool. At least fourteen million people now know One Direction has a new movie hitting theaters on August 30. That’s the sort of viral marketing a good percentage of theatrical releases can only dream about, Marvel’s Cinematic Universe and a few other big releases notwithstanding.

The movie shouldn’t be the only opportunity the guys have to put out new music over the next several months. Additionally, singer, songwriter and producer Ed Sheeran leaked the news back in May that the prolific pop group had already finished the band’s newest album, which marks the third time 1D has been in the studio to record a major release. The album isn’t set to drop until sometime around Christmas, and if the group’s marketing team is smart—which it seems to be—we may be getting even more new music videos in the coming months.

If you are actually excited about this movie, you don’t need to comb the new music video for snippets of footage concerning the theatrical release. The guys have actually released real trailers for the movie, one of which can be seen below. Additionally, you can read more about the release, or if you are feeling really spunky, you can help the band to continue to deserve the title “Best Song Ever” by actually purchasing a copy of the track.