Djo Hits Global No. 1 As Stranger Things Finale Ripples Outward

The cultural aftershocks of Stranger Things are still rattling the charts.

Joe Keery, performing under his musical alias Djo, has landed his first ever No. 1 on the Billboard Global 200, with ‘End of Beginning’ officially crowned the biggest song in the world.

The track jumped five places to the top spot following the show’s finale on New Year’s Day, interestingly ‘End of Beginning’ doesn’t actually appear in the final episode, that hasn’t stopped fans from flocking to it anyway, drawn by Keery’s presence as the series closed out one of Netflix’s most dominant franchises.

Originally peaking at No. 3 back in March 2024, the song has found new life in the wake of the finale, racking up 80.7 million global streams between January 2nd and 8th. Sales have also surged, with downloads up 185 percent week on week, not bad for a track written and co-produced entirely by Keery himself.

Reshaping the charts

It’s not the first time Stranger Things has reshaped the global charts. Back in 2022, Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)’ staged a historic comeback after featuring in season four, that resurgence proved the show’s ability to collapse time, dragging older songs into modern relevance almost overnight.

That trend has continued this week, The Police’s ‘Every Breath You Take’ has climbed into the Global 200 top 10 for the first time, more than four decades after its original release. The song previously appeared across seasons two and four of the series, and its renewed success underscores just how powerful screen syncs still are when they land right.

Meanwhile, there’s no slowing down Taylor Swift, ‘The Fate of Ophelia’ has slipped to No. 2 on the Global 200 but continues to dominate the Global Excl. U.S. chart for a fourth week, elsewhere in the top five, familiar streaming era heavyweights continue to shuffle positions, but the headline is clear.

As Stranger Things fades, its cast and soundtrack are still rewriting the charts and for Joe Keery, it’s a rare crossover moment where fandom, nostalgia, and timing collide and the world listens.