Post songs released before 2010 that achieved respectable chart peaks in their original runs but later became massive streaming hits—often outperforming, in total streams, the songs that originally kept them from reaching No. 1, as well as many other hits from their year or decade.

Would be fun if we did non pop girl songs.

I'll go first:

Lovefool - Cardigans (Released in 1996)

933,277,446 Spotify streams

Currently the 63rd most streamed song from the 90s on Spotify and one of the ten most streamed songs released in 1996. It was a decent sized hit back in the 90s. Reaching #2 in the UK and charting #31 on the UK year end chart. Additionally, Lovefool was #59 on the European singles year end chart for 1997.

Lovefool was blocked from #1 in the UK by You're not alone - Olive. You're not alone currently has 49,252,746 streams on Spotify.

Lady Gaga - Judas

Lady Gaga - Always Remember Us This Way

Edited January 23Jan 23 by Genie in a Bottle

I love to listen to soul music once in a while and I am amazed that some songs from the 60s are performing reasonably well right now

Etta James - At Last: 650 million+ streams

Aretha Franklin - I Say A Little Prayer: 770 million+ streams

Stevie Wonder - Signed, Sealed, Delivered: 760 million+ streams

2011 but Britney's Criminal being the streaming winner of Femme Fatale always kills me a bit, so random

5 minutes ago, nathanspears said:

2011 but Britney's Criminal being the streaming winner of Femme Fatale always kills me a bit, so random

Criminal has always been the best song from Femme Fatale to me so I'm happy about it. The fact it's doing 400k daily 15 years later is impressive. The whole album has surprisingly aged so well and I appreciate it even more nowadays !

But yeah it's funny and strange that streaming do not reflect the success of the singles from FF at all. On streaming it's Criminal > IWG > TTWE > HIAM lol

Taylor Swift: August, Cardigan, Don't blame me

Smooth Criminal didn't even make it to the Top 5 on BB100 and has more streams (total and daily) than Thriller on Spotify

Cruel summer

Judas 1B+ streams on Spotify and 1B+ streams on YouTube Music.

ok: where is my mind by pixies wasn't released as a single when it was first released in 1988 (and it wouldn't have charted anyway, they were a rising indie act at the time) but after being used in the closing credits of fight club it went onto become their signature song and is now a billion streamer.

their next biggest song is here comes your man with 300 million but none of their songs were big hits at the time, i don't think they ever broke the top 20 here and they never broke in america at all

1 hour ago, makeme said:

Would be fun if we did non pop girl songs.

it's an aspiration that seems unlikely to be fulfilled <sigh>

Mariah's "Obsessed".

The One That Got Away being Teenage Dream's 2nd most streamed hit

Mariah's best performing song on spotify as of now was released 20 years into her career, let that sink in

lana catalog: no hits -> streaming giants

1 hour ago, nathanspears said:

2011 but Britney's Criminal being the streaming winner of Femme Fatale always kills me a bit, so random

1 hour ago, Calvin said:

Taylor Swift: August, Cardigan, Don't blame me

37 minutes ago, ugo said:

Cruel summer

34 minutes ago, DaphneGuinness said:

Judas 1B+ streams on Spotify and 1B+ streams on YouTube Music.

None of you reading the OP
Post songs released before 2010

------
"Bohemian Rhapsody" Bombed initially

6 minutes ago, Mocha said:

Mariah's best performing song on spotify as of now was released 20 years into her career, let that sink in

** Excluding holiday songs

it never felt like a modest hit but Love You Like a Love Song peaked at only #22 on Billboard Hot 100 in 2012.

It has 1.2 billion Spotify streams and it moves 800k daily.

A lot of the indie rock bands of the 2000s have some

Two Door Cinema Club - What you Know

Mgmt - Kids, Electric Feel

Empire of the Sun - We are the People, Walking on a Dream

Temper Trap - Sweet Dispostion

Yeah Yeah Yeah - Heads will Roll

All songs nearing a billion or over. All charted low, bubbling under, or not at all

1 hour ago, Yanko said:

None of you reading the OP
Post songs released before 2010

------
"Bohemian Rhapsody" Bombed initially

In that case Bad Romance charted for "only" 35 weeks and never reached #1 because of Billboard not counting its insane streaming stats at that time. But it went on to be the first female diamond song in RIAA history and is nearing 2B streams on Spotify and 3B streams on YouTube Music.

Some of you posting songs released last week

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Was Pretty Little Baby a hit when it came out?

1 hour ago, Johnnyboi said:

A lot of the indie rock bands of the 2000s have some

Two Door Cinema Club - What you Know

Mgmt - Kids, Electric Feel

Empire of the Sun - We are the People, Walking on a Dream

Temper Trap - Sweet Dispostion

Yeah Yeah Yeah - Heads will Roll

All songs nearing a billion or over. All charted low, bubbling under, or not at all

i think tiktok/indie sleaze revival has played a role in the resurgence of this era of music, people are obsessed

Poker Face

4 hours ago, nathanspears said:

2011 but Britney's Criminal being the streaming winner of Femme Fatale always kills me a bit, so random

The impact of the internet culture and apps like youtube, roblox, msp, gacha and any other app of that kind which always used that song in some capacity

I always thought Lovefool was a big hit growing up, maybe it is because i heard it on the radio a lot during the 00s