We compared past-12-month English Wikipedia views for 134 Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hits from 2016 onward with 45 cult favorites and deep cuts that never topped the chart. The No. 1s still win on average, with a median of 58K views against 30K for the cult songs. The interesting part is the overlap. 'Mr. Brightside' (396K) out-drew 129 of the 134 No. 1s, and 'Stairway to Heaven', which was never even released as a US single, out-drew 129. At the bottom, streaming-era chart-toppers like 'Rapstar', Drake's 'What's Next' and Jimin's 'Like Crazy' drew under 12K views each. Many were one-week No. 1s powered by album-release streaming.
The No. 1s Wikipedia forgot (fewest views, past 12 months)
| Song | Artist | Views Oct 2025–Sep 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Rapstar | Polo G | 7,927 |
| What's Next | Drake | 8,858 |
| Like Crazy | Jimin | 11,467 |
| Franchise | Travis Scott featuring Young Thug and M.I.A. | 11,676 |
| The Scotts | The Scotts, Travis Scott and Kid Cudi | 14,651 |
| Pillowtalk | Zayn | 14,949 |
| Slime You Out | Drake featuring SZA | 15,791 |
| Psycho | Post Malone featuring Ty Dolla Sign | 16,257 |
| Highest in the Room | Travis Scott | 18,169 |
| Jimmy Cooks | Drake featuring 21 Savage | 18,553 |
| Rockstar | DaBaby featuring Roddy Ricch | 19,789 |
| Trollz | 6ix9ine and Nicki Minaj | 19,852 |
| First Class | Jack Harlow | 20,231 |
| 4x4 | Travis Scott | 20,964 |
| Wait for U | Future featuring Drake and Tems | 21,359 |
The deep cuts it can't stop reading
| Song | Views Oct 2025–Sep 2026 | No. 1s it out-drew |
|---|---|---|
| Mr. Brightside (The Killers) | 396,366 | 129 of 134 |
| Stairway to Heaven (Led Zeppelin) | 354,555 | 129 of 134 |
| Creep (Radiohead) | 335,923 | 129 of 134 |
| Hurt (Nine Inch Nails) | 239,269 | 127 of 134 |
| Where Is My Mind? (Pixies) | 150,541 | 119 of 134 |
| Sweater Weather (The Neighbourhood) | 116,024 | 109 of 134 |
| Heart-Shaped Box (Nirvana) | 88,463 | 97 of 134 |
| No Surprises (Radiohead) | 88,087 | 97 of 134 |
| The Night We Met (Lord Huron) | 82,642 | 89 of 134 |
| Exit Music (For a Film) (Radiohead) | 81,364 | 87 of 134 |
| Black (Pearl Jam) | 77,236 | 85 of 134 |
| Fake Plastic Trees (Radiohead) | 74,356 | 82 of 134 |
| Something in the Way (Nirvana) | 73,096 | 80 of 134 |
| Glimpse of Us (Joji) | 70,777 | 79 of 134 |
| The Less I Know the Better (Tame Impala) | 69,161 | 77 of 134 |
Most-read No. 1s (past 12 months)
| Song | Artist | Views |
|---|---|---|
| The Fate of Ophelia | Taylor Swift | 1,082,747 |
| Golden | Huntrix: Ejae, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami | 812,046 |
| All I Want for Christmas Is You | Mariah Carey | 535,486 |
| Die with a Smile | Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars | 437,264 |
| Not Like Us | Kendrick Lamar | 397,025 |
| Ordinary | Alex Warren | 329,543 |
| Blinding Lights | The Weeknd | 257,152 |
| Despacito | Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber | 233,983 |
| Manchild | Sabrina Carpenter | 233,691 |
| Luther | Kendrick Lamar and SZA | 226,723 |
What it means
Every song on these charts started as a hook someone wrote down. If you have a hook of your own, an AI song generator can turn it into a full track with vocals in a few minutes. For a soundtrack to your own day, an AI music generator can score it to whatever mood you need.
Method
- English Wikipedia page views, all devices, human readers only (bots excluded), monthly per article, Jan 2016–Sep 2026. 'Past 12 months' = Oct 2025–Sep 2026.
- No. 1 list: Billboard Hot 100 No. 1s from 2016 onward (public list); deduped, and two titles that redirect to album pages ('As It Was', 'All Too Well (TV)') were dropped.
- Cult list: our hand-picked set of well-loved songs that never reached No. 1 on the Hot 100 ('Everybody Wants to Rule the World' was removed because it did).
Cite and download
Free to use and cite with a link back to this page.
aisong.lol Research. (2026). No. 1 hits Wikipedia ignored — and deep cuts it can't stop reading. aisong.lol. https://aisong.lol/research/no-1-hits-wikipedia-ignored-and-deep-cuts-it-cant-stop-reading
Use this data. Every table in this study as one spreadsheet-ready file.
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