It’s that time of year again. Mariah Carey, Burl Ives, and Bing Crosby are in heavy rotation as Christmas music replaces the everyday soundtrack of lives around the world. While people generally only crank up the holiday tunes after they’ve put away their Thanksgiving leftovers, the songs tend to pull in large sums of money. However, a Christmas song doesn’t need to be a beloved classic to be among the highest-earning holiday hits.
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Recently, experts at GameTop combed through data to put together a list of the highest-earning Christmas songs of the modern age. Unfortunately, the data they pulled from Kworb.net doesn’t go back to the initial release dates of many of the songs on the list. Instead, the data tracks each song’s lifetime on Spotify. GameTop experts determined how many streams each song received from the United States. Then, the streaming service’s base pay of $0.004 per stream was used to see how much each had earned since Spotify became available to customers in the United States in 2011.
[RELATED: 3 Christmas Songs From the 1960s That Have Lasted Through the Ages]
The Five Highest-Earning Christmas Songs
Below are the top five highest-earning Christmas songs over the last 13 years in the United States. Interestingly only one song on the list was released after Spotify became available to customers in the United States. The rest were widely considered to be holiday classics long before streaming music became a possibility.
5. “A Holly Jolly Christmas—Single Version” by Burl Ives (1964)
For many, Burl Ives is the voice of the season. So, it’s not surprise to see his name among the highest-earning Christmas songs. Countless artists have covered the holiday standard over the years. However, Ives’ version stands out among them. People first heard his rendition of the song in the 1964 Rankin-Bass made-for-TV special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Ives, as Sam the Snowman, performed the song during the Christmas classic.
The single version of “A Holly Jolly Christmas” garnered 212,899,894 streams for an estimated total of $851,599.58
4. “Santa Tell Me” by Ariana Grande (2014)
Ariana Grande’s “Santa Tell Me” stands out in the list of the highest-earning Christmas songs because it is the only one in the top five to be released after Spotify became available in the United States. Grande co-wrote the song with Savan Kotecha and Ilya Salmabzadeh and released it in 2014.
“Santa Tell Me” is a cute, holiday-themed love song in which the narrator asks Santa to tell them if their new beau really cares.
“Santa Tell Me” brought in 239,761,996 for an estimated total of $959,047.98
3. “Last Christmas” by Wham! (1984)
What would the holiday season be without this song about Yuletide heartbreak? Written by George Michael, Wham! Released “Last Christmas” in December 1984. More than a massive chart success, topping the charts in 14 countries and occupying the top 10 in many more, “Last Christmas” was the most popular Christmas song in the United Kingdom for more than two decades.
“Last Christmas” pulled 282,714,449 streams for an estimated total of $1,130,857.80
2. “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” by Andy Williams (1963)
“It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” comes in at No. 2 on the list of highest-earning Christmas songs. It will likely continue to do so for years—if not decades—to come.
Written by Edward Pole and George Wyle, Andy Williams included the song on his 1963 Christmas album. Originally, it was not a single. However, its popularity has seen it return to the pop charts time and time again over the years. In fact, it peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2020, nearly 60 years after its initial release.
“It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” garnered 285,661,125 streams for an estimated total of $1,142,644.60
1. “All I Want for Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey (1994)
Is anyone surprised that Mariah Carey’s Yuletide earworm topped the list of highest-earning Christmas songs? “All I Want for Christmas Is You” is as inescapable as shopping, cold weather, and wrapping paper this time of year. It’s such an integral part of the season that memes about the song start circulating in mid-November.
“All I Want for Christmas Is You” has pulled in 415,447,620 streams for an estimated total of $1,661,790.08
Featured Image by NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images
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