The formula used to calculate the chart has been updated this week to allow Youtube video views, which now means that a track's position in the chart is determined by a mixture of its sales, radio airplay, on-demand streaming, and now Youtube streaming. This means that despite the song getting very little radio airplay, and only selling enough copies to make it the third-best selling song in the US for the week, it is the number-one song in the country. Usually, songs need to perform well on radio, streaming, and sales to obtain the coveted number one position; however, Harlem Shake has achieved what PSY's Gangnam Style (a former viral dance craze) couldn't, despite Style being number one on the sales charts for weeks on end.
This is what Billboard had to say about the debut below:
"The Billboard Hot 100 undergoes a major shakeup this week, as YouTube streaming data joins the chart's methodology. Fittingly, "Harlem Shake," the viral smash from Brooklyn producer Baauer, roars onto the ranking at No. 1. As announced today, Billboard and Nielsen have revealed that U.S. YouTube video streaming data has been added to multiple platforms, which includes an update to the formula for the five-decade-old Hot 100. YouTube streaming data is now factored into the chart, enhancing a recipe that includes digital download track sales (and physical singles sales), as tracked by Nielsen SoundScan, as well as terrestrial radio airplay, on-demand audio streaming, and online radio streaming, as tracked by Nielsen BDS. "Shake" becomes just the 21st song (of 1,023 No. 1s dating to the chart's 1958 launch) to debut at No. 1 on the Hot 100. Even more notably, it's the first song to start at the summit by an artist essentially unknown prior to charting. Baauer (born Harry Rodrigues) has taken advantage of the digital era (and the Hot 100's formula revision) to quickly make his hit the most popular song in the country. The track has surged thanks to the suddenly wildly popular "Harlem Shake" meme. (Its concept: a 30-second video begins with a person dancing to the song alone for 15 seconds, while other people appear unaware of the movement. Then, all participants join in for the clip's second half.) Fueled by the song's audio as a backing track, "Shake" debuts on the BDS-based Streaming Songs chart with an astounding 103 million weekly streams. The title does not appear on On-Demand Songs as only 309,000 of its streams stem from the online subscription services that contribute to that chart. While "Shake" was released commercially last June, it didn't begin to sell significantly until last week, thanks to the track’s viral momentum, when it moved 18,000 (up from less than 1,000 the week before), according to SoundScan. This week, it blasts onto the Digital Songs chart at No. 3 with 262,000 downloads sold (up 1,359%). The one element largely missing so far from the success of "Shake" is radio airplay. (Released on the independent Mad Decent label, it does not boast major label promotional backing). As "Shake" takes over atop the Hot 100, it dethrones Macklemore & Ryan Lewis' "Thrift Shop," featuring Wanz, after a four-week reign. Showing just how strong "Shake" is in streaming, "Shop" registered an impressive 10.1 million streams in the chart's tracking week (dipping 1-2 on Streaming Songs), but the figure is clearly exponentially lower than the 103 million for "Shake." "Shake," in fact, leads the Hot 100 with three-and-a-half times the overall chart points total of "Shop.""
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