The debate of the best Christmas movies resurfaces every December, with searches for ‘Christmas movies’ currently at 612k per month*. But what about the best Christmas soundtracks?
In a bid to reveal the most iconic festive film soundtracks, OnlineCasinos.co.uk analysed 34 Christmas movie soundtracks and calculated their estimated royalties (using Musicgateway.com) based on the combined number of Spotify streams.
Top 15 highest-earning Christmas movie soundtracks
| Rank | Christmas movie | Soundtrack’s combined Spotify streams | Total estimated royalties (£) |
| 1 | Last Christmas (2019) | 2,539,981,857 | 8,737,537.58 |
| 2 | Love Actually (2003) | 1,290,721,818 | 4,440,083.05 |
| 3 | Four Christmases (2008) | 1,125,588,451 | 3,872,024.29 |
| 4 | The Polar Express (2004) | 824,628,007 | 2,836,720.34 |
| 5 | A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) | 500,183,558 | 1,720,631.44 |
| 6 | Elf (2003) | 401,161,252 | 1,379,994.71 |
| 7 | Holiday Inn (1942) | 384,182,206 | 1,321,586.78 |
| 8 | The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) | 338,548,708 | 1,164,607.57 |
| 9 | Home Alone (1990) | 335,893,097 | 1,155,472.24 |
| 10 | A Bad Mom’s Christmas (2017) | 334,484,662 | 1,150,627.24 |
| 11 | Christmas With The Kranks (2004) | 296,373,150 | 1,019,523.64 |
| 12 | This Christmas (2007) | 262,034,924 | 901,400.14 |
| 13 | Office Christmas party (2016) | 182,537,584 | 627,929.28 |
| 14 | The Best Man Holiday (2013) | 87,378,499 | 300,582.04 |
| 15 | How The Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) | 70,216,358 | 241,544.26 |
You can find the complete data set here.
OnlineCasinos.co.uk can reveal that Last Christmas (2019) is the highest-earning Christmas movie soundtrack, with over £8.7 million in estimated royalties from its growing 2.5 billion combined streams. The album features the iconic Christmas bop ‘Last Christmas’ by Wham!, the most streamed song in the study.
Coming in second is the worldwide classic ‘Love Actually’ (2003), with nearly 1.3 billion combined streams and nearly an estimated £4.5 million in royalties. Despite the album comprising multiple genres, this film can make any song feel festive!
Four Christmases (2008) follows in third place with just over 1.2 billion combined streams, earning just over an estimated £3.8 million in royalties.
Notable fan-favourite Christmas films such as The Polar Express (2004) and Home Alone (1990) also made it to the top ten, potentially racking up nearly £2.9 million and £1.2 million from royalties, respectively.
The most successful Christmas movie songs
| Rank | Song | Movie | Total Spotify streams | Estimated royalties from Spotify streams (£) |
| 1 | Last Christmas By Wham! | Last Christmas (2019) | 979,332,157 | 3,368,902.62 |
| 2 | Jingle Bell Rock By Bobby Helms and Anita Kerr Singers | Four Christmases (2008) | 611,396,502 | 2,103,203.97 |
| 3 | Wherever You Will Go By The Calling | Love Actually (2003) | 488,882,198 | 1,681,754.76 |
| 4 | White Christmas By Bing Crosby | The Polar Express (2004), The Holiday Inn (1942) | 346,249,078 | 1,191,096.83 |
| 5 | Blue Christmas By Elvis Presley | Christmas With The Kranks (2004) | 259,966,344 | 894,284.22 |
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*statistic taken from https://ahrefs.com/ on 12/12/22
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Methodology:
1. With the festive season in full swing, OnlineCasinos.co.uk were curious to uncover the highest-earning Christmas movie soundtracks of all time.
2. First, the experts at OnlineCasinos.co.uk analysed reputable sources such as denofgeek.com, udiscovermusic.com, and bustle.com to uncover a list of the most popular Christmas movies based on their soundtracks. A total of 34 Christmas movie soundtracks were then compiled into a seed list.
3. Each movie’s official soundtrack album was sourced on Spotify, where the number of ‘plays’ (streams) was collated for each song.
– Movies with no official albums were excluded, leaving 23 in the final data set. The most played song from each album was also collected.
4. Subsequently, the number of streams was amassed to a final stream total per soundtrack and then inputted into a royalty calculator musicgateway.com.
5. The Christmas movie soundtracks were then ranked by the highest estimated royalties, and the number one place was crowned.
6. This data was collected on December 6th and is accurate as of then.
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