TikTok produced the UK’s biggest 2024 hit – but a ban could change everything
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At the end of 2024, Noah Kahan’s Stick Season was declared the UK Official Charts’ biggest hit, largely thanks to becoming a viral TikTok sensation. The US indie-folk artist is not alone in having their music skyrocketed by viral trends on the popular video platform which boasts 170million users in America and an estimated one billion worldwide.
![[Gracie Abrams]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SEI_233614036-a63e.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
Incredulous at his unexpected virality Noah told the New Yorker: ‘I didn’t think it would be through viral success. I f**king hated social media. TikTok for me was just, like, What the f**k, dude? What am I gonna do here? I don’t get it.’. At the time of writing, the song has been used in almost 100k videos and counting. Trailing just behind Noah in spot number two is Benson Boone’s Beautiful Things, streamed 219m times in the UK and securing the 10th most popular song on TikTok.
![[Hozier]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SEI_234103342-bcff.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
They both join a growing club of artists who have clinched their 15 minutes of fame on the video-sharing app. Users have either boosted already established tunes to new heights (Billie Eilish’s chart-topping Birds of a Feather was the eighth most popular song globally in 2024) or pushed songs unlikely to ever chart into the top 10 (think Chappell Roan’s Good Luck Babe, Gracie Abram’s That’s So True).
![[Charli XCX]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SEI_235024957-4b0b.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
Elsewhere, Irish singer Hozier landed his first ever number one, Too Sweet, immediately after taking off on the platform. From when the trend arose in April 2024 to January 2025 the song has gained 406m additional streams on Spotify – pushing it past the one billion mark – per calculations provided to Metro by Clayton Durant, an Adjunct Professor of Music Business at Long Island University’s Roc Nation School of Music, Sports & Entertainment.
![[TikTok]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SEI_236118326-13a5.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
