What do you get when you cross a mom, a talking Chewbacca mask, and Facebook Live? If you guessed a live broadcast of a high-stakes bank robbery, we’re afraid you’re wrong.
The answer, in fact, is a record-breaking video watched by tens of millions of people on the social platform’s livestreaming network.
Until now, Facebook Live has been the mainstay of media companies adept at publishing viral videos elsewhere on the web. That all changed today when a 37-year-old mother of two, Candace Payne, decided to share her love for her latest purchase from her local department store.
During her short clip, Payne is giddy with excitement at the item, which would later be revealed to be a (pretty darn cool) Chewbacca mask. She keeps viewers in suspense, claiming that the wait would be worth it. When she dons the talking wookie mask, she can barely contain her childlike joy, bursting out with laughter.
Broadcast live yesterday, the Facebook Live video has since clocked up an astonishing 71 million views and counting. Payne’s clip has also been shared almost two million times and received over a million reactions.
The previous record holder — BuzzFeed’s exploding watermelon video, which received 10 million views — has been well and truly eclipsed. Like Periscope before it, it was only a matter of time before Facebook’s general user base of 1.65 billion people became the stars of its livestreaming platform.
Can we therefore assume that this Chewbacca mom is now a Facebook Live trailblazer? Her follower count has skyrocketed to over 200,000 and if she continues to use the livestreaming feature, those same users will be notified every time she goes live. For her part, Payne seems to just be happy that her new-found fans enjoyed the clip.
In Payne’s words: “It’s the simple joys in life ….” And her viewers certainly agree, with many commenting on how her infectious antics helped brighten their day.
