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comeback singles

Only six of the top 20 songs of 2025 so far are from this year

Most of the biggest songs of 2025 aren’t from 2025.

12/10/25 4:37AM

Look, we get it, sometimes trying to keep up with the biggest songs of the moment feels like fighting a losing battle. As the pool of music grows wider and every other discussion about the hottest band or artist gives you the impression that you must have missed yet another invitation to the cultural conversation du jour, sometimes leaning into previous favorites feels like the safest option.

In fact, it seems we collectively reached for something a little more familiar: most of 2025’s biggest songs weren’t actually released this year, according to Luminate and Billboard data through November 20.

If your Spotify listening age made you feel a little less relevant than you’d once thought yourself, maybe recognizing some of the year’s biggest songs, a handful of which were also some of last year’s biggest songs, might put a bit of pep in your step.

Indeed, more than 50% of the year’s top 20 chart hits so far weren’t released in 2025, while only three of the top 10 songs of 2025 are from this year. For instance, “Lose Control” by Teddy Swims, the sixth-biggest song of 2025, came out in June 2023 — meanwhile, Kendrick Lamar’s “Luther,” currently in the second spot and thought by some to be in the running for Song of the Year at the 2026 Grammys, was released last November.

But what’s behind the lag?

2024, a fine vintage

As well as vaguer explanations about “nostalgia and escapism,” there are a couple of factors at play, per Variety. For starters, streaming has fragmented our listening, meaning monoculture megahits are rarer now. Playlists on different platforms often resurface songs from previous years, and there’s been a lack of megastar albums this year.

Many of these songs also came out in November or December 2024, giving them time to find their feet more fully this year. Speaking to Variety, Jaime Marconette, Luminate’s VP for Music Insights and Industry Relations, said that last year was just something of a bumper year for pop — with standout hits from the likes of Sabrina Carpenter, Charli XCX, and Chappell Roan — and some of the biggest songs of the year have had a big influence on this year’s chart looking a little throwback-ish.

Millie Giles12h

The most popular male and female names in the US, according to the latest Census

New data published Tuesday by the US Census Bureau has revealed the most common names provided in the 2020 Census, in the first release to include forename data since 1990.

As described in the brief, Michael was the most popular name for males in the US, with roughly 3.5 million American men reporting having this name or a close variant. This is up from fourth place in the 1990 Census, when the top US male name was James — though there were still 3 million Jameses in 2020’s tally.

Despite a three-decade gap, Mary remained the top name for American females in both censuses, with the 2020 survey counting almost 1.8 million females with this given name. Interestingly, Mary was one of just two predominantly female names that broke the top 10 given names in the US, with the overall list dominated mostly by male monikers.

Most popular names US census 2020 chart — Sherwood News

In all, American females had far more first-name diversity than male counterparts: 16% of US males had one of the top 10 most frequent names among men, compared with 7.8% of women. Zooming out, almost 3x as many given names were needed to cover a quarter of the US female population than that of males.

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6 months after hiking Game Pass prices by 50%, Xbox determines it may be too expensive

Microsoft’s new Xbox chief, Asha Sharma, thinks the division’s recent price hikes have been a mistake, per an internal memo to employees seen by The Verge.

“Short term, Game Pass has become too expensive for players, so we need a better value equation,” Sharma’s memo reportedly read.

It’s an interesting take, given that Xbox hiked the price of its Game Pass subscription by 50% in October, before Sharma took over. The memo is a signal that Sharma’s tenure — which began in February, taking the industry by surprise — will include some big changes for Microsoft’s gaming strategy.

Whether Game Pass prices will drop is not yet clear. Last month, The Information reported that Sharma and Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters have “kicked around ideas” about potential bundles. That would fit with Netflix’s renewed gaming ambitions.

Xbox Game Pass ‘has become too expensive,’ says Microsoft’s new gaming chief in leaked memo

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LIFELINE

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Will a resolve to reduce screen time see a revival of landline telephones?

For parents trying to limit their kids’ exposure to smartphones, the answer could be yesterday’s tech.

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IN THE GREEN

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Rory McIlroy just secured a second consecutive Masters title — and the biggest prize pot to date

Winning a sixth major title in the year of a record purse, McIlroy is now the Masters’ highest-earning golfer.

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Roblox announces age-based accounts for young users as child safety lawsuits pile up

Roblox on Monday announced its first accounts created specifically for young children and teens, furthering its efforts to increase child safety on the platform.

In June, Roblox Kids (for ages 5 to 8) and Roblox Select (for ages 9 to 15) will roll out, following the company’s global launch of mandatory age checks in January.

The new account types will feature different default settings — chats will automatically be set to “off” on Kids accounts — and limit access to games of certain ratings depending on age.

Child safety lawsuits and social media bans are piling up for Roblox, whose shares have dropped more than 30% year to date. In February, Los Angeles County sued the platform, alleging it created a “largely unsupervised online world” in which “child predators can readily locate, contact, and interact with minors.”

Roblox Introduces New Age-Based Accounts and Expanded Parental Controls for Users Under 16

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