0 Things That Became Massive Hits the Second Time Around

Some ideas are ahead of their time. Others are simply terrible… until they aren’t.

History is full of things that landed with a polite thud the first time around—or at least failed to make the impact they would later achieve. Albums that barely charted. Movies that couldn’t fill a theater. Products that made investors quietly reconsider their life choices. And then—sometimes decades later—something strange happens. A clip goes viral. A scene becomes a meme. A new generation discovers an old relic and collectively decides, “Actually, this slaps.”

The internet, for all its chaos and cat videos, has become the world’s most powerful resurrection machine. Algorithms don’t care about release dates. TikTok doesn’t check Rotten Tomatoes. Reddit doesn’t ask whether something already had its moment. If anything, the digital world seems to enjoy digging up the overlooked and giving it a second, louder shot at glory.

The following ten entries aren’t just comeback stories. They’re full-blown second acts—cases where initial impact, whether muted or short-lived, transformed into runaway success years later. Some made more money the second time around. Some became cultural icons. And a few proved that timing, more than talent, might be everything.

Related: 10 Albums by Great Bands That Were Never Released

10 Among Us

When Among Us launched in 2018, it did so with the quiet confidence of a game destined to be downloaded primarily by three cousins and someone’s bored roommate. Developed by the tiny studio InnerSloth, it attracted so few players at first that the creators briefly considered shutting down its servers entirely. There was no marketing blitz. No glowing press tour. Just a simple multiplayer game about colorful astronauts lying to each other in space.

Then 2020 happened.

Stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, streamers on Twitch began playing it. Big personalities followed. Viewership exploded. Within weeks, a nearly forgotten indie game became a global obsession. By late 2020, it had tens of millions of daily players and was one of the most downloaded mobile games in the world.

What makes this comeback remarkable isn’t just the scale—it’s the timing. Two years after release, with no major overhaul, Among Us became more successful than its creators could have realistically planned for. It didn’t fail because it was bad. It failed because no one was looking. The internet eventually did.^[1]

9 “Running Up That Hill” (Kate Bush)

When Kate Bush released “Running Up That Hill” in 1985, it was successful—but not seismic. It reached No. 3 in the UK and cracked the Top 40 in the United States. Respectable numbers. Cult admiration. End of story.

Or so everyone thought.

Nearly four decades later, the song was featured prominently in Season 4 of Stranger Things. What followed was less a resurgence and more a detonation. The track shot to No. 1 in the UK for the first time in Bush’s career and finally broke into the U.S. Top 10—something it had never achieved in 1985. Streaming numbers climbed into the hundreds of millions within weeks.

It wasn’t just a nostalgic bump. It was a generational transfer. Teenagers who weren’t alive during the Cold War were suddenly belting out a synth-heavy art-pop anthem about emotional role reversal.

The song didn’t fail the first time. But compared to its second life, the original run looks like a warm-up act. The internet didn’t just rediscover it—it finished the job history started.^[2]

8 Minecraft

When Minecraft officially released in 2011 (after a long beta phase), it was popular—but not the unstoppable cultural monolith it would later become. It had a loyal PC audience, strong indie buzz, and impressive sales for a sandbox game made largely by one Swedish developer at Mojang Studios. Still, by the mid-2010s, some critics had begun quietly declaring it “past its peak.”

Then YouTube happened. More specifically, YouTube grew up.

A new generation of creators built entire empires out of blocky survival worlds. Let’s Plays, speedruns, elaborate redstone contraptions, and massive multiplayer servers turned Minecraft into less of a game and more of a digital ecosystem. During the COVID-19 lockdowns, its player numbers surged again, reaching record monthly active users years after its supposed prime.

What’s remarkable isn’t that Minecraft was successful—it always was. It became exponentially bigger long after release, eventually surpassing 300 million copies sold and becoming the best-selling video game of all time. It didn’t explode at launch. It simmered. And then the internet kept turning up the heat.^[3]

7 “Dreams” (Fleetwood Mac)

In 1977, “Dreams” was already a hit. It reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became Fleetwood Mac’s only U.S. chart-topper. Most bands would happily retire on that résumé alone.

Then, 43 years later, a man on a skateboard changed everything.

In 2020, Nathan Apodaca uploaded a short TikTok video of himself cruising down a highway, sipping cranberry juice, and lip-syncing to “Dreams.” The clip went viral—millions of views, celebrity recreations, and even a response from the band itself. Within days, the song re-entered charts around the world. Streaming numbers skyrocketed into the hundreds of millions. Sales spiked dramatically. A track from the Carter administration suddenly belonged to Gen Z.

Unlike some entries on this list, “Dreams” didn’t fail the first time. But its second wave was arguably louder, broader, and more culturally dominant than its original run. One 20-second internet moment gave a decades-old soft rock anthem a brand-new audience—and a second life that felt bigger than the first.^[4]

6 The Shawshank Redemption

When The Shawshank Redemption hit theaters in 1994, audiences largely ignored it. Despite strong reviews and a cast led by Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, the film struggled at the box office, earning modest returns against its budget. It was overshadowed by louder, flashier releases that year and quietly disappeared from cinemas.

And then something strange happened.

Home video. Cable television. Early internet forums. Word of mouth that refused to die.

Through repeated broadcasts and DVD rentals, the film slowly built a reputation as one of the most emotionally satisfying dramas ever made. Online communities amplified that reputation. Eventually, it climbed to—and has stubbornly remained near—the top of IMDb’s user-generated rankings, often cited as the highest-rated film of all time.

What flopped theatrically became a cultural institution. Its second life wasn’t driven by marketing or studio strategy, but by audiences who wouldn’t stop recommending it. The first run was a whisper. The second became a chorus—and it’s still echoing.^[5]

5 Tamagotchi

When Tamagotchi first hit shelves in 1996, it was an instant craze… that quickly turned chaotic. Kids everywhere were glued to tiny egg-shaped screens, panicking if their pixel pets cried or died. Stores struggled to keep them stocked. Parents struggled to survive. But the fad burned bright and short—by the late ’90s, most children had moved on, leaving millions of digital pets abandoned in drawers.

Fast forward two decades.

Thanks to social media nostalgia and retro toy trends, Tamagotchis found a second life. In the mid-2010s, new generations discovered them, often sharing their experiences online. Special editions, apps, and even collaborations with fashion brands reintroduced the little devices to both former fans and newcomers. The internet wasn’t just reminding people of Tamagotchis—it was creating a cultural loop of obsession all over again.

What once seemed like a passing gimmick became a symbol of ’90s charm that still resonates today. The first launch burned out quickly; the second wave proved that even tiny digital eggs can hatch into lasting cultural icons.^[6]

4 Crocs

When Crocs first stomped onto the scene in 2002, reactions were… polite, if you were being generous. The foam clogs were comfortable, yes—but they were also, in the eyes of most fashion critics, a hideous invitation to mockery. Sales were decent at first, but by the mid-2000s, Crocs were widely ridiculed, and the company seemed destined to become a punchline.

Then the internet did its thing.

Memes, TikTok videos, and influencer culture collectively rebranded Crocs as quirky, lovable, and strangely desirable. Collaborations with celebrities and designers—from Post Malone to Balenciaga—turned what was once seen as an unfortunate foot accessory into a statement piece. By the 2020s, Crocs weren’t just tolerated; they were celebrated, often selling out immediately upon release.

It’s the perfect example of a product whose second life eclipsed the first. The original launch left many unimpressed. The internet turned ridicule into charm, comfort into fashion, and skepticism into obsession. Crocs went from “what were they thinking?” to “I need three pairs, please.” ^[7]

3 Sea Shanty Revival

Sea shanties were never supposed to go viral in the 21st century. These old maritime work songs were the domain of history books, folk festivals, and YouTube corners with a handful of dedicated enthusiasts. By all accounts, they were obscure, quaint, and largely forgotten—until late 2020, when TikTok users decided that everyone needed to clap, hum, and harmonize along to nautical tunes.

The phenomenon exploded. Videos of people layering harmonies, adding modern beats, and even remixing them into pop hits went viral overnight. Millions of viewers, many with no prior exposure to sea shanties, suddenly knew the words to “Wellerman” and other centuries-old work songs. Record labels reissued shanty recordings, and streaming numbers skyrocketed.

What’s remarkable is how thoroughly the internet resurrected something that was functionally dead in popular culture. These weren’t reboots, remakes, or covers—they were full-scale viral resurrections. A niche, centuries-old musical tradition became a global social phenomenon, proving that the digital world has a bizarre way of unearthing treasures nobody knew they wanted.^[8]

2 MySpace

At the turn of the millennium, MySpace was the undisputed king of social networking. Friends, bands, and wannabe influencers curated profiles, wrote heartfelt “about me” sections, and battled over Top Friends. But by 2008, Facebook had taken over, and MySpace seemed destined for digital oblivion—slow-loading pages, outdated aesthetics, and a dwindling user base made it a punchline in internet history.

Yet the story didn’t end there. Fast forward to the 2020s, and suddenly, the MySpace aesthetic—bold colors, GIFs, auto-playing background music—was being resurrected as a retro-cool internet subculture. TikTok users, indie designers, and nostalgia-seeking millennials began celebrating the very thing that once made MySpace unbearable. Fonts, layouts, and over-the-top personal branding became inspiration for digital art, fashion, and even music promotion.

What failed as a social network in its first iteration transformed into a cultural touchstone years later. The original launch faltered. The second life didn’t revive users—it reshaped aesthetics, proving that the internet can turn digital failures into creative gold mines.^[9]

1 Vinyl Records

By the late 1980s, vinyl records were widely considered obsolete. CDs had taken over the music world, offering convenience, durability, and digital clarity. Record stores reduced shelf space for albums. Many assumed the era of the vinyl LP was done—an expensive relic of a bygone era, collecting dust in basements and thrift shops.

Fast forward three decades, and the internet decided to rewrite that story. Music enthusiasts, influencers, and collectors began celebrating vinyl’s warm sound and tangible experience, sharing finds on social media. Hip-hop, indie, and pop fans alike embraced LPs as lifestyle objects, with vinyl sales skyrocketing. In 2022, vinyl outsold CDs in the United States for the first time since the 1980s, proving that what once seemed dead could dominate again.

What makes this resurgence so remarkable isn’t just nostalgia—it’s scale. The format that was dismissed as obsolete is now a booming industry, beloved by a new generation of listeners. Vinyl didn’t merely return. It became more culturally and commercially significant than ever—a perfect testament to how the internet can transform yesterday’s failures into today’s icons.^[10]