"Thriller" Returns to the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 20
Michael Jackson's "Thriller" has re-entered the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 20 on the chart dated Nov. 7, Billboard reported. The Hot 100 is the main weekly singles chart in the United States, ranking songs by streams, radio airplay and sales.
The song's numbers for the tracking week of Oct. 23 to 29 explain the climb. Data company Luminate counted 9.3 million U.S. chart-eligible streams, up 49%. A stream is one play that the chart is allowed to count, and the total is the chart's main yardstick for modern listening.
Radio helped too. "Thriller" reached an audience of 4.2 million on U.S. radio, double the week before. That figure is the number of listeners the airplay reached, not the number of stations playing it. Sales were smaller but still rose, with 3,000 copies sold, up 61%.
The song has a yearly habit. "Thriller" has returned to the Hot 100 every Halloween season since 2018. It first reached the chart's top 20 in that run in 2021, and climbed to No. 10 a year ago, in 2025. Its original 1984 peak was No. 4, in March of that year.
Other spooky songs are following the same pattern. Rockwell's "Somebody's Watching Me" re-entered at No. 39, with 6.3 million streams, up 52%. The track peaked at No. 2 in March 1984. Citizens of Halloween's "This Is Halloween" re-entered at No. 41, with 6.1 million streams, up 68%. It first charted in 2023 and reached No. 26 last year.
Streaming data from the week before Halloween showed a similar split. Billboard reported that "Thriller" and Tame Impala's "Dracula" were the two most-streamed Halloween songs in that period. Billboard also placed "Thriller" in the top 20 of its 25 Biggest Halloween Songs of All Time list, the first time it has made that ranking.
For anyone who only hears these songs in October, the chart is simply counting. Each week it adds up plays, radio audiences and purchases for every song in the same way, and this autumn those totals have climbed for songs that were written for one season of the year.
