Major recording companies have lost more than two billion video views on YouTube after the video sharing website cracked down on alleged fake views.

The biggest hit was taken by Universal, home of Rihanna, Nicki Minaj and Justin Bieber, which lost more than one billion views from its total of seven billion.

Sony was second hardest hit, with the label behind such stars as Alicia Keys, Rita Ora and Labrinth losing more than 850million views in a single day.

The dramatic falls, highlighted by figures compiled by YouTube statistics analysts at SocialBlade, came after YouTube conducted an audit of its viewing figures aimed at combating black hat view count-building techniques.