- Search interest
- Google search interest, US, Jan 2016–Oct 2026, monthly.
- Volumes
- Google search volume (US, 12-month average, Oct 2025–Sep 2026).
- Long tail
- Related Google searches for the seed "sped up" (US). There are 16,952 related queries; the top 700 were pulled and filtered to song-level ones.
In 2022, TikTok made the sped-up song a genre of its own. Search data shows how quickly the wave rose and how far it has fallen. US YouTube searches for "sped up" went from almost nothing in 2021 to an all-time high in December 2022. That's a 33x jump from the 2021 average to 2022. In 2026 they average just 12% of that peak. The opposite trend has proven more durable. Google search volume shows Americans search "slowed and reverb", "slowed reverb" and "slowed songs" about 28,300 times a month combined, against roughly 2,900 for "sped up" variants. Nightcore, the anime-era ancestor of sped-up songs, is still searched 18,100 times a month even though its search interest is down 87% since 2016. The long tail now leans on viral TikTok audios: the "Yummy (Righteous Remix)" sped-up version (480 searches a month), "Unwritten" (390) and "RUNRUNRUN" (320).
Search interest: average yearly interest (US, 0–100 within each platform)
| Year | YouTube "sped up" | YouTube "nightcore" | Web "sped up" | Web "nightcore" | Web "slowed reverb" |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 3.3 | 65.2 | 11.2 | 94.1 | 0 |
| 2019 | 1.0 | 54.7 | 6.3 | 67.8 | 0.3 |
| 2021 | 2.3 | 24.5 | 6.6 | 27.5 | 6.2 |
| 2022 | 75.2 | 18.7 | 33.3 | 21.9 | 6.0 |
| 2023 | 70.0 | 13.3 | 44.0 | 15.4 | 6.3 |
| 2024 | 38.3 | 10.1 | 28.8 | 13.6 | 7.1 |
| 2025 | 21.7 | 8.2 | 24.8 | 13.4 | 9.2 |
| 2026 (Jan–Oct) | 12.4 | 6.4 | 24.2 | 12.3 | 8.5 |
Peaks:
- YouTube "sped up": Dec 2022
- Web "sped up": Feb 2023
- Nightcore: May 2016
- Web "slowed reverb": Jul 2025
Google search volume: US monthly searches (12-month average)
| Query | Monthly searches |
|---|---|
| nightcore | 18,100 |
| slowed and reverb | 12,100 |
| slowed reverb | 8,100 |
| slowed songs | 8,100 |
| sped up | 2,400 |
| daycore | 880 |
| sped up songs | 320 |
| sped up audio | 140 |
Most-searched individual sped-up songs (US monthly)
| Song query | Monthly searches |
|---|---|
| Yummy (Ayesha Erotica, Righteous Remix) sped up | 480 |
| Unwritten (Natasha Bedingfield) sped up | 390 |
| RUNRUNRUN (Dutch Melrose) sped up | 320 |
| No Batidão sped up | 320 |
| Tek It (Cafuné) sped up | 260 |
| Fishy On Me (Tiko) sped up | 260 |
| Keep Up (Odetari) sped up | 260 |
| Greedy (Tate McRae) sped up | 140 |
| Cupid (FIFTY FIFTY) sped up | 110 |
| Sweater Weather sped up | 90 |
Searches for tools to make these edits are a measurable niche: "sped up song maker" (170 a month) and "sped up generator" (110).
What it means
Viral formats reward speed and a sound people already know. Anyone who wants to make the TikTok version of a track can do it in one step with a sped up song maker. The mashup nobody has made yet is a few clicks away with an AI song remixer.
Method
- Search interest: Google search interest, US, Jan 2016–Oct 2026, monthly.
- Web search and YouTube search were pulled separately for the same five keywords.
- Values are 0–100 within each platform.
- Volumes: Google search volume (US, 12-month average, Oct 2025–Sep 2026).
- Long tail: Related Google searches for the seed "sped up" (US). There are 16,952 related queries; the top 700 were pulled and filtered to song-level ones.
Cite and download
Free to use and cite with a link back to this page.
aisong.lol Research. (2026). The sped-up song era, measured: rise, peak and what replaced it. aisong.lol. https://aisong.lol/research/the-sped-up-song-era-measured-rise-peak-and-what-replaced-it
Use this data. Every table in this study as one spreadsheet-ready file.
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