The weather’s turning, the holidays are creeping up, and music is how everyone gets in the spirit. But we’re not just listening in our cars on long drives or through headphones while shopping — we’re watching. YouTube and connected TV are where holiday music dominates, soundtracking parties, online shopping marathons, and last-minute gift-wrapping sessions.
Research shows that, starting in mid-November, UPROXX managed holiday channels on YouTube begin to surge. By December, they explode. Videos featuring beloved artists like Michael Bublé, Sia, Ed Sheeran, and Trans-Siberian Orchestra see up to 1500% more views than their yearly averages. Our channels with deep holiday catalogs see substantial spikes in viewership during the winter window (Michael Buble’s channel sees a 912% viewership jump and 1870% watch time surge in December) proving that even in the era of on-demand everything, nostalgia still wins.
Viewers are streaming everywhere too: families gather in living rooms on smart TVs, co-viewing the classics; offices are filled with pop-infused holiday jams; and parties, game nights, and virtual meetups are all underlined by visual playlists that have become as much a part of the ritual as the eggnog and mistletoe. You can see it in the numbers:
– Sia’s “Snowman” has pulled in more than 357 million YouTube views
– Michael Bublé’s “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” is nearing 150 million
– Ed Sheeran and Elton John’s more recent “Merry Christmas” clocks in above 90 million watches.
– Coldplay’s “Christmas Lights” and Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s “Christmas Canon” continue to dominate as well, bridging pop, rock, and cinematic holiday drama.
These songs don’t just get played, they get put on repeat, the soundtrack for countless seasonal get-togethers.
The Takeaway
UPROXX sits at the center of this seasonal surge, with our exclusive access to Warner Music artists whose channels collectively hit 200 million+ monthly views in-season and a quarter of all those views happening on CTV — the biggest screen in the house. That audience spans almost every age demo and gender, splitting evenly between male/female listeners (52/48) with a reach driven by Millennial music lovers (25-44 year-olds) while spanning from Gen Z TikTok-savvy fans to nostalgic Boomers.
Holiday music is broadly enjoyed, a shared viewing ritual, and one of the most content-safe, emotionally impactful spaces in media.
