Forget the noise, forget the hype. We've crunched the raw data to bring you the real winner (so far).
Song announcement It has been, and continues to be, a difficult time for music fans to come up with a song of the summer. Some say the song of summer is dead, or that it never existed in the first place. Yet, like moths to a flame, every year when the temperature rises above 80 degrees, fans begin a heated debate about which song will prevail as the de facto anthem of the season.
We’re not above that instinct. But we’re also curious to see what happens when you eschew more subjective attributes like hype, personal taste, and critical consensus and instead focus on the numbers—looking at song streams as well as their overall streaming “equivalents,” which are determined using a formula that translates streams into units. rolling stone We identified 10 songs that have dominated a significant amount of critical discourse in the race to be this year's song of the summer, and pulled data from Luminate to track their overall performance since the last week of April.
While some of the results are in line with what we expected given the level of hype, cultural presence, and media attention some of these songs have generated, some of what we learned left us a little surprised.
This list focuses on songs that have been on the rise in the past three months. While songs like Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things,” Teddy Swims’ “Lose Control,” and Hozier’s “Too Sweet” are among the most popular songs in the country right now, all of which have racked up at least 220 million streams during the time period we analyzed, their peaks began too early to be considered summer hits.
Check out our full list below, counting down from 10 to the current number one.
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Charli XCX, “360” (44.3 million streams)
Charlie XCX Naughty “360” is an undeniable cultural moment, with its lime green hue now the defining aesthetic of chronically connected girls around the world, as well as the face of Kamala Harris’s headshot rebrand on X (formerly Twitter). “360” is the most “buzzing” song on the album, turning “so julia” into the catchphrase of the summer. However, it’s also the most SOTS-contending song we’ve identified, racking up 44 million streams and nearly 342,000 equivalent units since its May release through last week. Still, regardless of the numbers, this song will always be a great song. Naughty summer.
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Tinashe, “Nasty” (54.4 million views)
Tinashe's “Nasty” “Nasty” has become one of the most viral songs on the internet, giving her an unexpected breakout moment after more than a decade in the making. But not all of her TikTok tracks come in the form of streams and sales outside of the app. However, from the last week of April through last week, “Nasty” has racked up around 392,000 equivalents, along with around 54 million streams.
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Billie Eilish, “Lunch” (142.9 million views)
Like some Other releases on this list include Billie Eilish's lesbian lead single from hit me hard and soft She said her sales dropped by about three weeks in the time frame we analyzed, reflecting the strategy of putting the album first. rolling stone We talked about that in our article about the album back in April. But since the album's release, “Lunch” has racked up over 1 million equivalent songs from 142.8 million streams.
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Chappelle Rowan, “Good Luck, My Love!” (161.2M views)
Like her colleague Island Records labelmate Sabrina Carpenter’s Chappelle Rowan has quickly become one of pop’s newest stars, and she’s a strong contender for best new artist at next year’s Grammy Awards. Thanks to her viral performances at festivals like the Governor’s Ball last June, Rowan’s song has gone viral. With 1.2 million views, it’s one of the biggest songs of the year.
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Sabrina Carpenter, Please Please Please (202 million views)
Numerically, it is approximately It's unfair to judge “Please Please Please” against the higher-ups on this list. We tracked the song data from the end of April, and “Please Please Please” was released the first week of June. Since its release, Carpenter's follow-up “Espresso” became her first ever single to reach number one on the Hot 100, and has sold 1.5 million copies to date. The song is a hit, and we expect “Espresso” to be the next one. Short and sweet It will be one of the biggest albums of the year.
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Sabrina Carpenter, “Espresso” (331.4 million streams)
If vibrations alone “Espresso” was the deciding factor on this list, and it probably should have made it to No. 1. Given the buzz the song has generated since its release in April, we were surprised that its numbers put the song outside the top three. Sounds “Espresso” is a summer song, with a calming, soothing aesthetic to the music video. It inspired thoughts about the nature of pop songwriting and gave Sabrina Carpenter the breakout she enjoyed this year. “Espresso” has racked up 2.5 million streams since the end of April, along with 331 million streams. It’s also huge on radio, with “I Had Some Help” being the only song on this list to gain a larger audience in the time period we analyzed.
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Post Malone & Morgan Wallen, “I Got Some Help” (392.5M views)
If not for With the extra week of streaming for “Not Like Us,” the Post Malone and Morgan Wallen country song is likely to be the No. 1 song on this list. With nearly 3.081 million equivalent streams, no song has performed better since the week of May 10. “I Had Some Help” is a chart monster, having spent six of the past 10 weeks atop the Hot 100. Wallen still carries the controversy of using a racial slur in 2020, but his career doesn’t seem to have skipped a beat. “I Had Some Help” would mark the second year in a row that Wallen has missed a summer contender, following “Last Night,” the best-performing song of 2023.
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Shaboozey, “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” (410.5 million streams)
After the appearance On the In the spider world Beyoncé's soundtrack and multiple collaborations cowboy carter Finally, Shapozie stole the show with his smash hit “A Bar Song (Tipsy).” With 3.1 million total streams and 410 million streams, “(Tipsy)” is a strong contender to keep up its momentum in the coming months, becoming only the second country song ever by a black artist to top both the Hot 100 and the Hot Country Chart at the same time, following Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em.”
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Tommy Richman, Million Dollar Baby (462.7 million views)
It is rare that It’s the first major release by a song of the summer artist, but Tommy Richman has made a strong case with “Million Dollar Baby.” Since its release in late April, Richman’s R&B hit has sold 3.2 million equivalent copies and racked up around 462.7 million streams, only surpassing “Not Like Us.” If we’re judging purely by presence on TikTok, where the younger audience lives most, “Million Dollar Baby” is the undisputed king. It’s been used in over 6 million videos and has spent the past 10 weeks on the platform’s music chart.
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Kendrick Lamar, “Not Like Us” (538 million streams)
In numbers, “Not Like Us” reigns supreme this year. With its catchy beat and inflammatory lyrics that call Drake a child molester, Kendrick Lamar’s latest hit is arguably the biggest moment in music this year. The song has sold 3.5 million units and racked up over half a billion streams in the U.S. since its release in May, according to Luminate. That’s 100 million more than our current No. 2 on the list. And as the culmination of the biggest rap battle in decades, Kendrick Lamar’s savage take on Drake is inevitable. It’s blasted from the car, in the club, and at sporting events. Everyone loves a good rap battle.