The BBC said the record sold 500,000 downloads and edged out "The X Factor" winner Joe McElderry's "The Climb," which sold 450,000 copies.
"We are very, very ecstatic about being No. 1," Rage front man Zack de la Rocha told BBC's Radio 1. "It says more about the spontaneous action taken by young people throughout the United Kingdom to topple this very sterile pop monopoly."
BBC News entertainment reporter Colin Paterson described the online fan campaign to push the Rage song to top the holiday roster as "one of the biggest shocks in chart history."
"The common belief was that the race for Christmas No. 1 had been destroyed by 'The X Factor,'" Paterson said. "This year, the corporate might of Simon Cowell has been defeated by a husband and wife's Facebook campaign."
Copyright 2009 by United Press International.
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