Rage Against the Machine’s YouTube Views Spike 99% After Reunion Announcement

Did last week’s announcement that Rage Against the Machine will reunite for a series of shows in 2020 get you excited, as it did me? Or were you one of the haters who called the band hypocrites for playing a corporate event like Coachella, despite the fact that hijacking a massive corporation’s leverage to spread their anti-capitalist, anti-hate message is possibly the most badass move imaginable?

If you were in the latter category, I’m sorry, but you’re a loser. And if you were in the former category, you were not alone: YouTube views of Rage Against the Machine’s catalogue saw a daily spike of 99% on November 1 following the reunion announcement compared to their average daily views throughout the rest of 2019. Loudwire reported the statistic, although it isn’t clear whether they collected the data themselves or got it from a source they neglected to cite.

You can keep an eye on tickets for Rage Against the Machine’s reunion shows, including Coachella, right here.

Here are some cumulative all-time YouTube stats for a few of Rage’s most popular songs (the official, band-sanctioned uploads):

“Killing in the Name:” 113 million views
“Bulls on Parade:” 39 million
“Sleep Now in the Fire:” 23 million
“Testify:” 11.9 million
“Freedom:” 7.5 million
“Bombtrack:” 6.2 million
“Take the Power Back:” 4.2 million

The reunion dates and cities announced so far are as follows (tickets here):

El Paso, TX March 26, 2020
Las Cruces, NM March 28, 2020
Phoenix, AZ March 30, 2020
Indio, CA April 10, 2020
Indio, CA April 17, 2020

Here’s a video of Rage performing “Killing in the Name” in 1993 at the PinkPop Festival in the Netherlands to get you amped for what’s to come.