The White Stripes are a case where our measure needs an honest asterisk. Jack and Meg White were one of the most important and acclaimed bands of the 2000s, a garage-rock duo whose influence stretches far beyond any single song. Calling them a one-hit wonder in conversation would be absurd.
And yet the numbers are the numbers. "Seven Nation Army", released in 2003, transcended music entirely. Its descending riff became a global chant, roared in football stadiums by people who could not name the band, and that ubiquity has made it a streaming colossus. It now sits near 2.2 billion plays.
Their catalogue is deep and beloved, with "Fell in Love with a Girl" and others pulling real numbers, but nothing comes near that riff. Dividing the hit by their second song gives a ratio of about 6.71, past our 5.0 line.
So by our strict, numbers-only measure, The White Stripes register as a certified one-hit wonder. We flag it precisely because it shows the limit of any single metric: a hugely influential band can still have one song so universal that, on streams alone, it dwarfs an entire celebrated body of work.