“Treat You Better” (2016) vs. present (2025)

Friday, July 25, 2025

Question: When was the last time Shawn Mendes released a song with a user score of 30% or lower?

Answer: July 12, 2016.

That was the day he released “Treat You Better.” The answer is July 12, 2016, and this answer has remained constant for nine years and 13 days.

A lot has changed in nine years. In this article, I will be comparing July 2016 (back then) and July 2025 (now).

In the summer of 2016, I was 19 years old. Nineteen and a half, and I had just finished high school. The date July 12, 2016, was a Tuesday. I had just left high school less than two weeks earlier; Thursday, 6/30/2016 was my last day at that school. By the time “Treat You Better” was released the afternoon of 7/12/2016, I had just started taking “Differential Equations” in college.

Today, I am 28 years old. My brother, Bryan, was 16 in 2016. Back then, he wasn’t an adult yet! Now, he is a grown adult, at 25 years old, and he and I have now entered the casino area at Encore Boston Harbor not once, but twice (July 2023 and December 2024), LEGALLY doing so both times, ID and all.

In July 2016, Barack Obama was still in office as the president of the United States. In the last nine years, we’ve elected Trump, then Biden, then Trump again.
Pokémon Sun and Moon had been known to the public for months, but they had not been released yet. Sun & Moon were released on November 18, 2016, four months after “Treat You Better.”
There were 721 Pokémon as of Generation 6, which was the current generation at the time. Well, 721 plus the Generation 7 Pokémon that were already known at the time, such as the starters (Rowlet, Litten, and Popplio). Now, there are over a thousand Pokémon, 1,025, to be exact. Corviknight, Dragapult, Calyrex, and Gholdengo, didn’t exist in 2016.
Girafarig (#203 in the National Pokédex) first appeared in Pokémon Gold and Silver in November 1999 (October 2000 in North America). For 23 years, Girafarig did not evolve from or into any other Pokémon. The year 2016 was the 17th year in a row in which Girafarig was not part of an evolutionary line. “Treat You Better” was released during Girafarig’s 17th summer as a standalone Pokémon. Now, in Scarlet/Violet, it can evolve into Farigiraf.
“Treat You Better” was released four months before Pelipper became viable in competitive battling. First debuting in Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire in 2002 (2003 in North America), this was the 14th summer in a row in which Pelipper was unviable in serious competitive play. For the 14th spring and summer in a row, Pelipper fans who wished to battle competitively were strongly advised against using Pelipper. With the release of Pokémon Sun and Moon on 11/18/2016, Pelipper finally gained the ability “Drizzle,” which summons rain onto the battlefield every time Pelipper is sent into a battle. With that, Pelipper became quite useful and quite popular among competitive players.
“Gangnam Style” was still the most viewed video on YouTube. It was surpassed one year later by “See You Again” in July 2017; less than a month later, that video was surpassed by “Despacito” on August 4, 2017, at 1:30 p.m. EDT. Later that day, “Despacito” became the first video to reach 3 billion views. Today, “Baby Shark” is number one, with over 16.1 billion views.
As the meme goes, “Corona” was a beer, and “Tik Tok” was a Kesha song. Two months after “Treat You Better” was released, TikTok, the platform, launched in September 2016. The otherwise neutral word “Corona” was “ruined” in early 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) resulted in extensive death and extensive cancellations of events. I remember lots of news articles at the time liked to use the word “upended,” as in “The lives of millions of Americans are currently being upended due to the coronavirus.” Due to the popularity of TikTok, it is now considerably harder to search for the classic Kesha song on YouTube with the same name.
“Dislikes” were still publicly visible on YouTube videos.
Pokémon X and Y were still highly regarded games, rated at about 8/10 or 8.5/10 on Metacritic; after the “Dexit” controversy in June 2019, these games tanked to 7.5/10 instead. Nowadays, some Pokémon fans believe that the games are getting worse, and many of those same people point at Pokémon X and Y (2013) to be the negative turning point when the downward spiral began.
Back in 2016, Todd in the Shadows had not yet loved any Miley Cyrus songs. Or at least not enough to put any on his personal “best hit songs” lists. Four years later, Todd finally loved a Miley Cyrus song. On January 17, 2021, he put “Midnight Sky” at #4 on his “best hit songs of 2020” list.
In Pokémon Sun and Moon, Dodrio gained a 10-point boost to its base “Speed” stat. Ever since its introduction in Generation 1 with Red/Blue, Dodrio had a base “Speed” of 100. After 20 years (18 years in North America), this value was changed from 100 to 110. At Level 100, prior to November 2016, the minimum possible value for Dodrio’s “Speed” was 184, and the maximum was 328. After the change in November 2016, the minimum is 202, and the maximum is 350. Numbers 184 through 201, inclusive, are no longer possible, while numbers 329 through 350, which were previously unreachable for Dodrio, are now reachable for Dodrio.
How many times has the Boston Red Sox won the World Series since 2000? In July 2016, the answer was 3, those being 2004, 2007, and 2013. However, in October 2018, the Red Sox won again, so the answer is now 4.
In July 2016, there were 49 known Mersenne primes. The largest known prime was M_74,207,281, which was discovered six months earlier, on January 7, 2016. Three Mersenne primes were discovered in the last nine years, bringing the total to 52. The current largest known prime is now M_136,279,841.
In the United States, we have changed our clocks 18 times in the last 9 years: nine “fall back” transitions, nine “spring forward” transitions.

People born in July 2007 turn 18 this month. This means there are people who are now legally adults, who were only 9 years old when “Treat You Better” was released.
There are people legally buying alcohol in the United States who were as young as 12 or 13 when “Treat You Better” was released. On a similar note, at Encore Boston Harbor, there are people legally entering the casino (also 21+) who were only 12 years old the last time Shawn Mendes released a song with a score 30% or lower.
My cousin, Terry Li (a.k.a. “Yichen”), was born on May 24, 2012. He is now 13 years old, a teenager. He was only four years old when “Treat You Better” was released.
As of 2025, most of the children who are currently in second grade weren’t even born yet the last time Shawn Mendes got 30% or lower.
On July 1, 2004, the Cassini spacecraft reached the planet Saturn after seven years in space. Back in July 2016, babies born on that day were too young even for COPPA websites (13), such as YouTube and Smogon. Now, they are eligible for a much more stringent age-restricted area: the Encore Boston Harbor’s casino area (21).
Billie Eilish (born December 18, 2001) was 14 years, 7 months old in July 2016. Now, she is 23 years, 7 months old.
Imagine that, in August 2016, you got a pencil and paper (or a Notepad file on a computer) and wrote down a list of all Shawn Mendes songs with a user score of 30% or lower. For most humans in most everyday contexts, August 2016 is not considered “recent.” It seems so long ago, but even now, in July 2025, your list is still complete, as no Shawn Mendes song from August 2016 or later has scored below 30%. “Treat You Better” is pink blood.
On April 19, 2025, the town of Lexington, Massachusetts held a big parade to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Lexington, which took place on April 19, 1775. Back in 2016, it had been only 241 years.