The Last of Us music hits the charts again: Ashley Johnson's cover soars by 1000% on Spotify

The final song of the second episode of the hit HBO series The Last of Us has caused a real musical boom: its listening on Spotify has increased by an incredible 1000%! The streaming service has officially confirmed this jump in popularity of the cover version of Sean James' "Through the Valley" performed by Ashley Johnson.

Here's What We Know

After the release of the second episode of the second season on Sunday, 20 April, the number of listens to this cover in the US increased more than tenfold. The developer of The Last of Us, Naughty Dog, responded to this news from Spotify with a heart-shaped emoji. Probably, the number of listens to James' original version has also increased, but Spotify did not provide relevant statistics.

Ashley Johnson is undoubtedly known to fans as the voice and character of Ellie in The Last of Us video games by Naughty Dog. It was she who first recorded a cover of "Through the Valley" back in 2016 for The Last of Us promotional campaign: Part II.

The series' showrunner and writer Craig Mazin told EW that the new version of "Through the Valley" is a combination of the 2016 teaser song and a "slightly updated version" that Johnson recently recorded in the studio. Mazin admitted that he has always loved this song and its impact on his emotions.

Interestingly, in the first season of the series, Johnson played Ellie's mother.

This is not the first time that an episode of The Last of Us has contributed to the song's popularity. In the first season, streams of Linda Ronstadt's "Long Long Time" jumped by almost 5000%. Outside of the series, the Grand Theft Auto VI trailer featuring Tom Petty's "Love Is A Long Road" also had a significant impact, increasing its streams by more than 37,000%.

Source: @SpotifyNews