2025’s biggest anime hit with over six billion views didn’t come from Crunchyroll or Netflix. Instead, the viral anime release came from TikTok, and it’s still going strong after nearly two months of trending worldwide online.
The official Love Live! social media account announced that «AiScReam,» the viral anime idol song by the self-titled sub-unit, reached 25 million views through its official music release on YouTube. However, the total number of views related to «AiScReam» videos on YouTube surpassed six billion as of May 9, 2025. This refers to online users sampling the official «AiScReam» audio to create viral clips for YouTube Shorts. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg, as «AiScReam» initially went viral on TikTok and continues to surge across numerous social media platforms with no sign of slowing down.
Love Live’s ‘AiScReam’ Is a Viral Hit Thanks to YouTube & TikTok
«AiScReam» is currently #3 on Billboard Japan’s «Global Japan Songs excl. Japan» chart, which ranks the popularity of Japanese songs garnering attention worldwide across 200 countries weekly. This is the song’s highest performance yet, as earlier weeks had «AiScReam» at 18th, 9th, and now at 3rd place. Billboard Japan analyzed the data further to see how wide the international reach of «AiScReam» has become since its under-the-radar release on Jan. 6, 2025, to May 6, 2025. Here are the current overseas rankings, as provided by Billboard Japan.
- South Korea
- America
- Indonesia
- Philippines
- Taiwan
- Brazil
- Thailand
- India
- Malaysia
- Mexico
Although «AiScReam» embodies all the appealing and enduring traits of Love Live! that have kept the multimedia franchise going for 15 years, the sub-unit itself is peculiar. The limited-time idol group comprises all three members of the Love Live! All Night Nippon GOLD radio program. Ai Furihata plays Ruby Kurosawa of Aqours (Love Live! Sunshine!!). Aguri Onishi plays Ayumu Uehara of Nijigasaki (Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club). And Wakana Ookuma plays Shiki Wakana of Liella (Love Live! Superstar!!). «AiScReam,» the name of the sub-unit and radio program, is an onomatopoeia of the pronunciation of «ice cream.» The capitalizations in the name reference the members’ initials («A» for Ayumu, «S» for Shiki, and «R» for Ruby).
While the mini-album release for «AiScReam» wasn’t intended to be a high-profile release, the self-titled song took on a life of its own when the official Love Live! TikTok account shared a clip of its performance at a joint live concert in early February. In particular, the call and response segment of the song — where the audience would ask one of the performers their favorite ice cream flavor, and they would answer and close out with «But I love you more» — has inspired countless memes on TikTok, YouTube, and more.
Love Live! Bluebird set to debut on YouTube on May 12, 2025. However, the most prominent group is Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club, which is a solo idol branch of 12 performers separated by different high school years. Yu Takasaki, Ayumu’s childhood best friend, acts as the girls’ composer and potential love interest.
Nijigasaki grew from a spin-off mobile title to a mainline anime franchise with a two-season TV series in 2020, a gag-driven spinoff in 2023, and now a three-part theatrical film franchise released in Japan on Sept. 6, 2024. A visual novel game based on Nijigasaki was recently released on the Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam. Numerous Love Live! anime TV series, movies, and specials are available to stream on Crunchyroll, while their music is available on multiple musical streaming services like Spotify or YouTube Music.
