Angel-voiced diva Mariah Carey’s inimitable 1994 version of “All I Want for Christmas Is You” might be the most popular holiday song of the modern era—and this year will be no different. It appears that play count spikes every year as fall turns to winter, Christmas creeps nearer, and people begin to snuggle in with their annual viewing of Love Actually and a mug of cocoa. And now—just three days into November—a data chart visualizing the song’s YouTube statistics is already showing a distinctive upward trend, and people have begun commenting.
Shared in a screenshot by Twitter user Zach Cole, the simple graph tells us a lot about the rabid, insatiable appetite for Carey’s dulcet tones (during the appropriate time of the year, of course). As soon as it’s societally acceptable to start blasting the jingling tune, as Cole notes, “it begins.” His tongue-in-cheek call-out tweet has been liked more than 50,000 times, including by Katy Perry. With a cumulative total of nearly 184 million views on the song’s original YouTube music video posted to the platform six years ago, it clocked about 4.5 million daily during 2015’s holiday season—and, if it holds to trend, should hit about 6 million daily this year.
Sick of this song yet? Watch out for The Shins’ “Wonderful Christmastime,” last year’s most-played seasonal tune. Want more Carey? She’s releasing a children’s book inspired by the song.
More Must-Reads from TIME
- Breaking Down the 2024 Election Calendar
- How Nayib Bukele’s ‘Iron Fist’ Has Transformed El Salvador
- What if Ultra-Processed Foods Aren’t as Bad as You Think?
- How Ukraine Beat Russia in the Battle of the Black Sea
- Long COVID Looks Different in Kids
- How Project 2025 Would Jeopardize Americans’ Health
- What a $129 Frying Pan Says About America’s Eating Habits
- The 32 Most Anticipated Books of Fall 2024
Write to Raisa Bruner at raisa.bruner@time.com