 Brogan Driscoll of The Huffington Post wrote that Bieber "shows he's all grown up, driving fast cars and taking one rather scantily-clad young lady into his arms". James Montgomery of MTV News wrote that "Filled with cool clothes, hot cars and even hotter women,' Boyfriend '... is the stuff of every newly minted heterosexual adult's dreams ... only on overdrive" and added that "It's a cool, confident clip, and, given where he's at right now, it's also an important one." Bruna Nessif of E! Online shortly commented that Bieber "is not a little boy anymore" in the music video for the song. Upon release, the video broke the VEVO record for having the most views in a 24-hour period with 8.00 million. The previous records were held by Nicki Minaj's "Stupid Hoe" (4.8 million) and Rihanna's "Where Have You Been" (4.9 million). Released on 20 September 2012, the video for One Direction's "Live While We 're Young" garnered 8.24 million views in a 24-hour period, thus besting Bieber's record (8.00 million).
