This Exploding Watermelon Was Facebook Live's Biggest Hit To Date

Spoiler: The watermelon dies in the end.

This afternoon, BuzzFeed exploded a watermelon with rubber bands in a Facebook Live video titled "Watch us explode this watermelon one rubber band at a time!" You may have seen it.

According to Facebook, more people tuned in at the same time to watch it live than any other video. At its peak toward the end of its 45-minute runtime, the broadcast had 807,000 viewers all watching at the same time. That's more people than live in Alaska, and just slightly fewer than live in San Francisco. Currently, the broadcast has more than 5 million total views. However, as Live broadcasts remain online after they air, that number will likely continue to rise. The video also garnered more than 315,000 comments. (BuzzFeed is among a group of Facebook Live paid media partners.)

Earlier this week, Mark Zuckerberg told BuzzFeed News, “We built this big technology platform so we can go and support whatever the most personal and emotional and raw and visceral ways people want to communicate are as time goes on."

It's true — watermelons are raw.


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