Which Artists Have the Most Spotify Streams?

Mar 25, 2020

Photo by Markus Spiske

Originally Posted On: https://leviathyn.com/94582/which-artists-have-the-most-spotify-streams

In 1965, 8 tracks burst onto the music scene marking the first time music became mobile. Mobile music has continuously evolved ever since from cassette tapes to CDs to MP3 players to streaming services.

People have been carrying their favorite tunes with them for over 50 years and music is still as popular as ever. In fact, in 2017, people around the world spent over 40 billion hours listening to Spotify streams alone.

With millions of artists available to enjoy at the press of a button and the number growing by the day, which ones are the world’s favorites? Listed below are the 10 most streamed artists in the last decade.

DRAKE

Drake has been releasing music since 2007, rising quickly through the music industry and going platinum three years later in 2010 with his first studio album Thank Me Later.

His meteoric rise makes it unsurprising that he dominated the last decade in terms of Spotify streams, taking the number 1 spot out of all the artists on the platform. Currently, Drake has a whopping 52 million monthly listeners.

ARIANA GRANDE

With two smash albums in the last two years alone, Ariana Grande was the most streamed female artist from 2010 to 2019. Grande released her first album in 2013 and has since claimed accolades such as Time’s most influential people and Billboard’s Woman of the Year.

Ariana Grande’s musical prowess has earned her over 42 million monthly listeners on Spotify, with her hit “7 Rings” garnering over a billion streams since its release.

ED SHEERAN

English singer/songwriter Ed Sheeran has been in the spotlight since his first hit single “The A-Team” topped the charts in 2012. Sheeran has been massively popular ever since; in fact, his 2017-2019 Divide Tour is the highest-grossing concert tour of all time.

With nearly 61 million monthly listeners, Ed Sheeran is currently the third most-streamed artist on Spotify. His song “Shape of You” has received almost 2.5 billion plays, making it the most popular song of the decade.

RIHANNA

A record-breaking woman in a variety of avenues, Rihanna gained popularity in 2007 with her pop album Good Girl Gone Bad. After a few more albums, Rihanna released her Grammy-winning hit Unapologetic in 2012.

Rihanna has over 34 million monthly streams on Spotify, with her song “Work” hitting nearly a billion listens.

POST MALONE

With perhaps the most jaw-dropping Spotify numbers on this list, to say that Post Malone rose rapidly would be an understatement. Post Malone didn’t appear on the mainstream music scene until 2015 and just five years later, is one of the most popular artists in the world.

At 24 years old, Post Malone has not one, but four songs that have broken a billion listens on Spotify, as well as several more hits that are approaching that number. As of this month, Post Malone is the 8th most streamed artist on Spotify with over 53 million plays.

TAYLOR SWIFT

After taking the music scene by storm in 2006 with her album Taylor Swift that was geared more toward a country sound, Swift made a shift toward pop that catapulted her into a new stratosphere.

Taylor Swift gets close to 40 million listens per month, and though she doesn’t have a billion-listen spike on any one song, she has an incredibly loyal fanbase and has received around 300 million listens on many of her releases.

EMINEM

Eminem has been a part of the hip hop music world for decades, which only makes it more impressive that he’s on the list of the top Spotify artists of the last ten years. Since releasing his debut album in 1996, Eminem has garnered an immense fanbase and continues to put out hits today.

Over 46 million people around the world listen to Eminem’s music monthly, with his song “‘Till I Collapse” from his album The Eminem Show having over 800 million listens.

SIA

Famous for her two-toned hair covering the majority of her face, Sia released her first album in 2000 but didn’t gain mainstream popularity until 2008. And it wasn’t until 2014 that she truly broke through with her album 1000 Forms of Fear.

Sia receives 33 million listens monthly and her song “Cheap Thrills” from the 2016 album This Is Acting has been played over a billion times.

THE WEEKND

Brooding and mysterious, The Weeknd is everything you could want from a dark wave R&B artist. He began releasing music in 2011 but hit number 1 on the charts in 2015 with his album Beauty Behind the Madness.

With a number of chart-topping hits, The Weeknd’s Spotify stats are impressive. About 54 million people listen to his music monthly and he has 4 songs reaching close to a billion streams, with “Starboy” shattering that number with 1.3 billion listens.

BEYONCÉ

After getting her start in the popular 90s group Destiny’s Child, Beyoncé has now become, to many, the queen of the music industry. With her wide range of sounds, from R&B to pop beats such as those from Blue Road Music, Beyoncé has captured the hearts of listeners everywhere.

Beyoncé gets close to 30 million streams every month and has multiple songs with hundreds of millions of listens, “Halo” being the most popular with 745 million plays.

THE 10 ARTISTS WITH THE MOST SPOTIFY STREAMS

Well, there you have it! From Drake to Beyoncé, these 10 artists dominated worldwide Spotify streams in the last decade.

Music has always had the power to bring people together, and these musicians have taken huge strides in that respect. Two people could live on opposite sides of the Earth and have absolutely nothing else in common but their love for Taylor Swift and bond at her concert – and that’s the true beauty of music.

Looking for more interesting facts about musicians and the art that they create? Check out our blog!