Bowie's bow out breaks Vevo record

David Bowie passed away earlier this week and fans flocked to the internet to celebrate him on various services including Vevo

David Bowie sadly passed away earlier this week to the shock of his millions of fans around the world. In tribute, they flocked to the internet and various music services to relive his best and brightest work, celebrating the artist and the man as they mourned his loss.

It caused a massive upsurge in traffic for the artist, with music video sharing site Vevo reporting that views of his videos increased more than 5000 percent on the week before. And with that traffic came a new world record, as his content was collectively viewed more than 51 million times on the 11th of January 2016.

The previous record holder was Adele with 36 million views and it's a testament to the enduring popularity of David Bowie that such a huge number was reached. He appealed across generations, with a career spanning more than 40 years and a hit-heavy back catalogue.

The most viewed video was also one of the most poignant, with more than 11.1 million plays for the Lazarus. It comes from his last ever album, Blackstar, which was released just on his birthday a couple of days before his death. The video now has close to 19 million views and counting.