Thanks to its dominant quantity of video streams–and the resulting surge of paid downloads–Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball” is pacing for a surge to number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
According to Billboard, the racy video, which features a nude Cyrus riding around on a wrecking ball, amassed 15.5 million US YouTube streams in its first two days of release.
If it stays on its current pace, which suggests a weekly stream sum of 30-45 million, it would garner more than double the stream activity of Katy Perry’s “Roar,” Billboard’s current chart-topper.
Still reigning as the hottest-selling single on iTunes, Cyrus’ track is expected to move more than 400,000 paid downloads by week’s end on Sunday. That would give it a comfortable edge over Perry’s track, which will likely garner a total in the 350,000 range.
The Cyrus song’s greatest weakness–and Perry’s only chance of holding onto number one–comes in the airplay category. “Roar” is radio’s second-most-played song, while “Wrecking Ball,” which made its first big radio push this week, is not yet in the top 100.
But as of press time, Billboard does not believe Perry’s edge in airplay points will be enough for “Roar” to retain its Hot 100 crown. And that means that as a result of releasing her most risque video to date, Cyrus will likely score her first number one on the key singles chart.
Previously, Cyrus has twice reached number two; “Party in the USA” peaked there in 2009, while “We Can’t Stop” reached that level this summer.