David Bowie’s “Heroes” Surges on Streaming After Stranger Things Finale
“Heroes” has experienced a dramatic resurgence following its prominent placement in the final moments of Stranger Things, underscoring once again the series’ outsized influence on music discovery and cultural memory.
According to new streaming data from Luminate, Bowie’s 1977 anthem saw its daily streams increase by nearly 500 percent in the days following the show’s Dec. 31 finale. Over the past five months, “Heroes” averaged roughly 94,000 streams per day across major digital platforms. That figure spiked sharply after the finale aired: approximately 342,000 streams on Jan. 1, followed by 456,000 on Jan. 2 and 470,000 on Jan. 3, a jump of more than four times its typical daily performance.
The song accompanied the closing credits of the series’ final episode, a placement that carried both narrative and symbolic weight. In an interview with Netflix’s Tudum, series creators Matt and Ross Duffer revealed that the decision to use Bowie’s original recording came from actor Joe Keery, who plays Steve Harrington on the show.
“It was actually Joe Keery who suggested that we do the Bowie version,” Ross Duffer said. “Once Joe said that, we immediately knew it was the right song to end the show on. In some ways, it’s an anthem for Stranger Things. Using the original Bowie version felt fitting for the conclusion.”
Keery himself benefited from the finale’s cultural aftershocks. His musical project Djo saw a major boost in attention, with his 2022 track “End of Beginning” climbing to Number One on Spotify’s Global Chart in the days following the episode’s release, overtaking a long-running chart leader by Taylor Swift.
Throughout its run, Stranger Things has repeatedly demonstrated its ability to reintroduce classic songs to new generations. The most notable example came in 2022, when Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” returned to global charts after appearing in Season Four, becoming one of the most striking examples of a legacy song finding a second life through television. The series’ finale leaned heavily into that tradition, using music not merely as background but as narrative punctuation.
The final episode also featured prominent placements of Prince’s “When Doves Cry” and “Purple Rain,” reinforcing the show’s long-standing dialogue with Eighties pop and rock canon. According to Variety, streams of “Purple Rain” jumped 243 percent on Spotify following the finale, with a 577 percent increase among global Gen Z listeners.
Ross Duffer explained to Tudum that the creative team spent months debating the musical centerpiece for the episode’s climactic sequence, which hinged on a record player triggering a pivotal plot device. “We never talked about a song choice as much as we did for that moment,” he said. “We knew we needed an epic needle drop, and there’s nothing really more epic than Prince.” Ultimately, the back half of Purple Rain aligned seamlessly with the emotional arc of the episode.
