The Neighbourhood’s “Sweater Weather” has reached a new milestone on Spotify. The band’s signature 2012 single surpassed five billion streams on Monday, November 2, according to Spotify, becoming only the third song in the platform’s history to reach that figure.
The track is also Spotify’s most playlisted song of all time, appearing on more than 103 million user-created playlists. Guitarist Zach Abels said the song’s continued success remains difficult to comprehend, especially since it began as an idea he developed with Jesse Rutherford and Jeremiah Freedman while they were teenagers.
“We wrote it in my mom’s living room when I was in high school,” Abels told Billboard. He added that the song has developed an identity beyond the band through the internet and its listeners, who continue to attach their own meanings to it.
Released ahead of The Neighbourhood’s debut album, I Love You, “Sweater Weather” reached No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2013 and topped the Billboard Alternative Airplay chart. The song has returned to prominence each autumn, first reaching one billion Spotify streams in 2021. Its yearly streams increased more than sevenfold between 2019 and 2024, according to the platform.
Abels believes the song’s seasonal appeal comes from its intimate atmosphere and themes of comfort and closeness. Although the band did not initially intend to create an autumn anthem, streams have consistently risen during the colder months and the track has continued to appear on large numbers of playlists.
The song’s reach extends beyond Spotify. Its visual recently passed one billion views on YouTube, adding to its lasting presence nearly 15 years after its release.
The Neighbourhood have released four additional albums since I Love You. Their most recent record, Ultrasound, arrived in November 2025, reached No. 20 on the Top Alternative Albums chart and accompanied a sold-out world tour across Australia, New Zealand, Asia, Europe and North America.
Sources: Billboard.