For the first time since Billboard's Global 200 chart launched in 2020, "All I Want for Christmas Is You" is no longer the world's top holiday song. Wham!'s "Last Christmas" — a track from 1984 that's been quietly accumulating streams for years — has claimed the highest-ranking spot.
The shift happened in December 2025, when "Last Christmas" hit No. 2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. But on the Global 200, which measures streams and sales across 200 countries and territories, it's now at the top.
Andrew Ridgeley, Wham!'s surviving member, reflected on the moment with genuine warmth. "The special place the song occupies in so many hearts is one that George Michael would have been immensely proud of," he said, thanking everyone who's kept the song alive through decades of holiday seasons. George Michael's estate echoed the sentiment, describing "Last Christmas" as "a timeless record that embodies the very sound of Christmas and continues to resonate with audiences, while captivating new listeners around the world."
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Start Your News DetoxWhat This Actually Means
On one level, this is just a chart rotation — the kind of thing that happens every year in music. But it reveals something quieter: "Last Christmas" has been gaining momentum for years. It originally entered the charts at No. 50 back in 2017, then steadily climbed as streaming normalized how we consume holiday music. Unlike Mariah Carey's song, which tends to spike hard in November and December, Wham!'s track has built a more distributed, year-round listener base.
There's also a generational element here. Mariah Carey's 1994 classic defined Christmas for millennials and Gen X. But Gen Z has grown up with "Last Christmas" as part of the cultural fabric — it's been in every holiday playlist, every shopping mall, every streaming service for their entire lives. To them, it's not a nostalgia play; it's just Christmas.
Fans of "Last Christmas" celebrated the moment online, with some noting that the points between the top three songs were close enough that dedicated streaming could push it even higher on the U.S. chart specifically. It's a reminder that in the streaming era, chart positions reflect real listening choices made by millions of people, not just industry gatekeeping.
Mariah Carey's reign wasn't diminished by this — her song remains one of the most-streamed holiday tracks ever. But after five years of dominance, "Last Christmas" has shown that there's always room for another song to capture what people actually want to hear during the holidays.
