What’s the Song of the Summer? Let’s Do the Math

Declaring the song of the summer has always been and will forever be an elusive task for music lovers. Some say the song of the summer is dead, or that it never really existed in the first place. And yet, like moths to a flame, every year when the weather gets above 80 degrees, fans begin a feverish debate on which song stands above the rest as the de facto anthem of the season.  

We’re not above this instinct. But we’re also curious what happens when you stave off more subjective qualities like hype, personal taste, and critical consensus and instead focus on the numbers – looking at song streams as well as overall track “streaming equivalents,” which are determined by using a formula that translates streams into units. Rolling Stone identified 10 songs that have dominated much of the critical discourse in the race for this year’s song of the summer crown, and we 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 a few of these songs have generated, some of what we learned left us a little surprised.

This list focuses on tracks whose surge started within the past three months. While chart behemoths 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 and have all garnered at least 220 million streams in the time period we analyzed, their peak began too early to consider as summer tracks.

Check out our full list below, counting down from 10 to the current number one.

10. Charli XCX, ‘360’ (44.3 million streams)

Charli XCX’s Brat is an undeniable cultural moment, with its lime green hue now the defining aesthetic of chronically online girlies around the globe, as well as the face of the rebrand for Kamala Harris’s header image on X (formerly twitter). “360” is the most “brat” song on the album, turning “so julia” into the phrase of the summer. That said, it’s also the most niche of the SOTS contenders we identified, picking up 44 million streams and about 342,000 equivalent units from its release in May through last week. Still, numbers aside, this will always be a brat summer.

9. Tinashe, ‘Nasty’ (54.4 million streams)

Tinashe’s “Nasty” has become one of the most viral songs on the internet, giving her an unexpected breakthrough moment over a decade into her career. But not all TikTok tracks materialize as streams and sales outside of the app. Still, since the last week of April through last week, “Nasty” has garnered about 392,000 equivalents, along with about 54 million streams. 

8. Billie Eilish, ‘Lunch’ (142.9 million streams)

Like some of the other releases on this list, Billie Eilish’s sapphic lead single off of Hit Me Hard And Soft has about three weeks’ fewer sales under the time frame we analyzed, reflecting the album-first strategy she told Rolling Stone about in our cover story back in April. But since the album’s release, “Lunch” has scored over a million song equivalents off 142.8 million streams. 

7. Chappell Roan, ‘Good Luck, Babe!’ (161.2 million streams)

Like her fellow Island Records labelmate Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan has quickly become one of pop’s newest princesses, a strong contender for Best New Artist at next year’s Grammys. With her viral performances at festivals like Governor’s Ball back in June, Roan’s been everywhere. With 1.2 million equivalents, it’s one of the bigger songs of the year.

6. Sabrina Carpenter, ‘Please Please Please’ (202 million streams)

Numerically, it’s almost unfair to judge “Please Please Please” compared to the songs higher-up on this list. We decided to track song data from the end of April, and “Please Please Please” came out the first week of June. Since it was released, Carpenter’s “Espresso” followup became her first ever Hot 100 Number One hit, and to date has moved about 1.5 million equivalents. The song’s a certified hit, and we expect Short N’ Sweet will be one of the biggest albums of the year.

5. Sabrina Carpenter, ‘Espresso’ (331.4 million streams)

If vibes alone were the deciding factor in this list, “Espresso” may have ended up at Number One. And given how much buzz the song has gotten since its April release, we were surprised it’s numbers placed the song out of the top three. “Espresso” sounds the most like a song of the summer, the music video’s aesthetic is beachy and relaxed. It’s inspired think pieces about the nature of pop songwriting and gave Sabrina Carpenter the popstar breakthrough she’s enjoyed this year.“Espresso” has earned about 2.5 million song equivalents since the end of April, along with 331 million streams. It’s also huge at radio, with “I Had Some Help” being the only song on this list garnering a larger audience in the time period we analyzed.

4. Post Malone and Morgan Wallen, ‘I Had Some Help’ (392.5 million streams)

If not for the one extra week of streams “Not Like Us” holds, Post Malone and Morgan Wallen’s country collab would likely be the Number One song on this list. With about 3.081 million song equivalents, 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 at the top of the Hot 100. Wallen still carries controversy for his use of a racial slur back in 2020, but his career hasn’t seemed to skip a beat. “I Had Some Help” would mark the second year in a row Wallen is behind a song of the summer contender, following “Last Night,” the best-performing song of 2023.

3. Shaboozey, ‘A Bar Song (Tipsy)’ (410.5 million streams)

After an appearance on the Into The Spiderverse soundtrack and multiple collabs on Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter, Shaboozey finally took the spotlight for himself with “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” making a certified hit. With 3.1 million total equivalents and 410 million streams, “(Tipsy)” is a strong contender to keep its momentum in the months ahead, becoming only the second-ever country song from a black artist to top the Hot 100 and the Hot Country Chart at the same time, following Beyonce with “Texas Hold ‘Em”.

2. Tommy Richman, ‘Million Dollar Baby’ (462.7 million streams)

It’s rare that an artist’s first major release becomes the song of the summer, but Tommy Richman makes a strong case with “Million Dollar Baby.” Since its release at the end of April, Richman’s trap R&B hit has managed to sell 3.2 million equivalents and earned about 462.7 million streams, bested only by “Not Like Us.” If we’re judging purely on TikTok presence, where young audiences live the 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.

1. Kendrick Lamar, ‘Not Like Us’ (538 million streams)

By the numbers, “Not Like Us” reigns supreme this year. With its catchy beat and incendiary lyrics labeling Drake a pedophile, Kendrick Lamar’s latest hit is arguably the biggest moment in music this year. It’s sold 3.5 million song equivalent units and earned over half a billion streams in the United States since its release in May, per Luminate. That’s 100 million more than the current runner up on our list. The climax of the biggest rap beef in decades, Kendrick Lamar’s vicious Drake diss is inescapable. It’s blaring in cars driving down the road, it’s at the clubs, it’s soundtracking sporting events. Everyone loves a good rap battle.

From Rolling Stone US.