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By 16 October 2012 | Categories: news

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Austrian skydiver, base jumper, and all-round daredevil, Felix Baumgartner, did not only manage to break the sound barrier and a couple of skydiving world records this week, but also viewership records on YouTube.  

According to YouTube, this death-defying feat landed a massive online viewership with more than eight million simultaneous views on the site, which is the most concurrent views any live stream has ever achieved on YouTube. YouTube users watched the two hour long live feed, seeing Baumgartner make his record breaking freefall attempt and land safely in Roswell, New Mexico.

Baumgartner completed the highest jump from a platform at a height of approximately 39 km, when he lept from a capsule that was lifted to the edge of space by a mammoth helium-filled balloon. He reached an estimated top speed of 1 342 km/h, which is faster than the speed of sound at Mach 1.24.

In addition, the 43-year-old Austrian also completed the longest distance freefall at around 36.5 km, when he was in freefall for a period of four minutes and 20 seconds before opening his parachute and floating down for a soft touchdown.

“We congratulate Felix Baumgartner and the entire Red Bull Stratos team for their successful mission, and for creating a livestream with the most concurrent views ever on YouTube,” a post by Tim Katz, YouTube's sports partnerships manager read.

 

In other social networking related news, Facebook recently surpassed the one billion mark for registered users of the site.

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