Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' Hits No. 1 on US iTunes, Streams Up 42% in Hot 100 Chase

Michael Jackson's "Thriller" returned to No. 1 on the US iTunes song chart on Oct. 30, 2026, the eve of Halloween, according to chart tracker Talk of the Charts, as reported by RGM. The 1982 classic is also streaming 42% ahead of last year, and Billboard says this could be the year it finally contends for its first Billboard Hot 100 No. 1.

What we know

• US iTunes, Oct. 30, 2026: No. 1, per Talk of the Charts, in a post embedded in RGM's report.
• Spotify, Oct. 28, 2026: No. 18 on Spotify's Top Songs USA chart, and the most-streamed Halloween song in the US so far this October, according to Spotify data reported by That Eric Alper. Ray Parker Jr.'s "Ghostbusters" sat at No. 15 the same day.
• Luminate streams: 5.9 million official on-demand US streams in the tracking week ending Oct. 15, up from 4.1 million in the same week of 2025, a 42% jump, per Billboard's analysis.
• Early momentum: From Oct. 16 to 20, "Thriller" streams were up 22% from the same days a week earlier, Billboard reported.
• The math: The song drew 14 million streams in Halloween week 2025. Add 42% and you get about 20 million, which Billboard said would have made it the top-streamed song in the country in the week it ran the numbers.
• Hot 100 history: It peaked at No. 4 in 1984 and has never been No. 1, Men's Journal noted.

Context

"Thriller" has come back to the Hot 100 every Halloween season since it re-entered the chart dated Nov. 10, 2018, at No. 31. It hit No. 19 in 2021, sat in the 20s from 2022 to 2024, then reached No. 10 in November 2025, the first of the yearly Halloween songs to make it back to the top 10, per Billboard.

Two things are different in 2026. First, the Michael biopic, released in April, pushed Jackson's catalog back onto the chart; he has already landed six songs on the Hot 100 this year, including "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" and "Human Nature." Second, the calendar. Billboard's tracking week runs Friday to Thursday. In 2025, Halloween fell on a Friday, so a lot of the pre-Halloween listening counted toward the week before. This year Halloween is a Saturday, so Friday, Oct. 30, and Saturday, Oct. 31, land in the same tracking week.

Catalog songs are hitting harder across the chart in general. Billboard pointed to older tracks like Mac Miller and Ty Dolla $ign's "Cinderella," which was at No. 44 on the Oct. 24-dated Hot 100 after picking up viral attention this year.

The competition is real. Billboard called Ella Langley's "Choosin' Texas" "the song to beat, as it has been all 2026." It led Streaming Songs for two straight weeks with 19.6 million streams in the latest frame. Tame Impala's "Dracula" remix with JENNIE was No. 5 on the Hot 100 and the No. 1 song on US radio, with about 10 times the airplay of "Thriller," though its streams were up just 2% in the week ending Oct. 15. Sales could help "Thriller" a little: it sold about 3,000 copies in each of the two weeks around Halloween last year.

A No. 1 would make "Thriller" the first seasonal Halloween No. 1 of the century, as Billboard put it. "Monster Mash" (1962) and "Ghostbusters" (1984) both topped the chart on their original runs, but "Thriller" never did.

What's unconfirmed

• Hot 100 result: Nothing is decided yet. The Halloween-week numbers reach the Hot 100 in November, according to Men's Journal. Billboard's 20 million figure is a projection from last year's total, not a reported number.

"Thriller" at No. 1 on the Hot 100 this November: happening or not?