What do you think On Top of the World means?

Imagine Dragons: On Top of the World Meaning

Album cover for On Top of the World album cover

Song Released: 2013


On Top of the World Lyrics

If you love somebody
Better tell them while they’re here ’cause
They just may run away from you

You’ll never know quite when, well
Then again it just depends on
How long of time is left for you

I’ve had the highest mountains
I’ve had...

  1. 1TOP RATED

    #1 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
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    Sep 18th 2020 !⃝

    I think it’s about the ups and downs of life and how you need to appreciate the moments when someone understands what’s going through your head and tries to lift you up. It’s about finding the happiness in everything you do. It’s not the world pushing you down and pulling you up, it’s your perspective of the world and the people around you that makes you feel certain things. Usually you’d look back at the past and think about the good old days. This song is about realizing you’re in the good old days right now, you just have to look.

  2. 2TOP RATED

    #2 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
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    Sep 8th 2017 !⃝

    Literally it means that you are on top of the world. Take that to any context that fits. It feels very close to my circumstance of having a mutli-gifted son, who, in his 25 years of life, fit in what most people never do in an entire lifetime. He died doing what he loved most....mountain climbing. While he was alive, he truly loved his life. A good example for everyone.

  3. 3TOP RATED

    #3 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
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    Nov 11th 2018 !⃝

    The very first line "If you love somebody you better tell them while there here because they just might run away from you" meaning that he lost a close person in his life, they left on there own terms. From that day on, he had developed depression. But now he is coming out of depression and excepting it. The line "I'm on top of the world" meaning he is happy, and is living his life once again.

  4. anonymous
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    Aug 26th 2022 !⃝

    Well, its obviously about a person who doesn't know how to live their life, and who the singer used to love before she broke up with him. Then he got over it and then realized that while she was "looking down" the whole time, he was "on top of the world," and had been working towards it "since they were a child."

  5. anonymous
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    Feb 10th 2020 !⃝

    I think that this song means that to find a path to happiness you have to dream and cherish the person you love while there here because they might disappear some day.

  6. anonymous
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    Mar 26th 2018 !⃝

    I feel like he may be coming out of depression.

    "I'm on top of the world..." meaning I'm finally happy.

    "Been dreaming of this since a child" he's been in depression since he was young.

    "Paying my dues to the dirt" he's been putting up with put downs for his entire life.

  7. anonymous
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    Jan 10th 2018 !⃝

    I take this song in that you should live life how you want to. Do the things that you want to do. Don't wait around and put things off, if you want to do it, DO IT!!! It could also be taken as overcoming a large obstacle or taking the weight on your shoulders away. It's saying that although you may have these problems in your life, you can't "Take the easy way out". You have to overcome obstacles.

  8. anonymous
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    Jan 7th 2018 !⃝

    I think that when it says "Im on top of the world", its like a hyperbole because your exaggerating that he's literally on top of the world. But it just means that he achieved something very meaningful in life despite all the obstacles.

  9. anonymous
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    Oct 27th 2017 !⃝

    I think this song is about being on top of the world.

  10. anonymous
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    Oct 3rd 2016 !⃝

    do what you love and don't take a moment of life for granted, because its too short to be depressed, and make sure to appreciate what you have worked hard for.

  11. anonymous
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    Dec 15th 2015 !⃝

    I feel as though this song was written to express the "big risk, big reward" aspect of life.

    "I could've gave up then, but, then again I couldn't have, 'cause I traveled all this way for something", in my opinion, is a nearly-literal statement on the fact that he's worked too hard to just give into the pressure of trying to claim his place in the world.

    "waitin' on this for a while now, been dreaming of this since a child" represents the fact that he'd been chasing a childhood dream and is ecstatic at having finally made them come true.

  12. anonymous
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    Dec 14th 2015 !⃝

    I have this kind of a specific image about this song. Maybe a traditional epic love story: I see a young man, the singer.
    Maybe at first he is this kind of a free-thinker travelling and enjoying the life as it is, but then he realizes that this is not the real goal... "and time keeps moving..." So he gets it, that he should seek the true love - perhaps a girl he always liked since he was a child (they just have lost contact for a very long time). By a chance he meets her and he spontaneously falls in love with her. She would have loved him back if only she wasn't just about to move to some third-world country as a volunteer. The singer had tried to persuade her to stay, but she wouldn't. After some time of indecision, our man understands he doesn't want to lose his chance. He packs his things and there he is. "traveled all this way for something" :-)
    And so he is eventually "on top of the world" as he had been dreaming of deep in his heart since being a child :-)

  13. IggyAzalea112003
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    Jan 19th 2015 !⃝

    It's saying do something before it's too late. Like with me I have this guy that I like and he likes me back but he doesn't know that I know that because a friend told me but I'm too afraid to talk to him so this song is saying to me TALK TO HIM BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!!

  14. anonymous
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    Jan 3rd 2015 !⃝

    To me this song means that YOLO and you could and should feel on top of the world.

  15. anonymous
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    Sep 27th 2014 !⃝

    I think this song is kind of meant to be taken however you choose to. Have it relate to your life in whatever makes you feel 'on top of the world', but I think the true meaning behind this song is finally overcoming a large obstacle (depression and anxiety, as the lead singer suffered from these). "Waiting on this for a while now", "And I know it’s hard when you’re falling down and it’s a long way up when you hit the ground", "I tried to cut these corners, tried to take the easy way out." It matches it perfectly. I can completely relate to this song after overcoming such struggle myself and these words express every last thing in my mind practically :)

  16. anonymous
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    Mar 27th 2014 !⃝

    this song is about how letting go of the past was hard because his girlfriend that he grew up with is now gone but he has to look at the good things in life, even threw all of the pain in the past he feel that he is at a good place in his life. He feel that he's on top of the world.

  17. anonymous
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    Feb 23rd 2014 !⃝

    I think he wrote this song because of their recent fame

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  18. anonymous
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    Feb 23rd 2014 !⃝

    Probably about how he worked hard and now is "On top of the world".

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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