The way we listen to music is constantly changing, and these days, streaming services are the way of the world. Out of all of the platforms we can choose from, Spotify is on top. Other services like Apple Music and Tidal are trailing right behind them. With Spotify being the current reigning streaming service, artists are fighting to be on top of the platform. That being said, who are the top Spotify Artists of all time?
Monthly Stats vs. All-Time Leaders
When it comes to Spotify statistics, artists have monthly listeners and overall streams. According to Pitch-Us, Spotify monthly listeners are the “unique listeners who play an artist’s songs during a 28-day period.” After this period, the metric resets, and it’s used to determine the current audience — how many people are listening, not how many times they’re listening.
This is why the monthly artists are constantly changing. If an artist releases new music, their monthly listeners will most likely increase. There’s new content to attract new listeners. On the other hand, we have all-time listeners for Spotify artists. With this statistic, Spotify measures how often songs are played rather than the number of listeners. This statistic never resets and is continuously counted. This is how we determine the most powerful Spotify artists of all time.
Over the years since Spotify was launched back in 2008, the top artists have constantly changed. These days, the artists that are leading these charts shouldn’t surprise you. However, it also makes us wonder, who exactly are these Spotify artists leading the way? How long can their reign last?
What Makes A Top Spotify Artist?
Of course, counting streams plays a crucial role in determining whether or not an artist is a top Spotify Artist. While Spotify does keep a tally running, other factors go into the final ranking. So, how exactly does the streaming platform determine things?
According to SoundOn, “While streaming numbers are undoubtedly significant, a multitude of other factors come into play, including factors such as user engagement, playlist placements, and even geographical diversity of streams.” Engagement is always important with any artist, whether it’s on Spotify or social media. It’s what drives sales and helps them gain momentum to get their careers trending in the right direction. Perhaps something even more important when it comes to driving people to play an artist’s music is playlist placements. The more an artist is featured in playlists and shared in a playlist, the further the music will go and be streamed.
Now that we got all of the technicalities out of the way, let’s get to the fun part. Who exactly are these top Spotify artists?
Taylor Swift
According to ChartMasters, to absolutely no one’s surprise, Taylor Swift is Spotify’s most listened-to artist currently, with over 100 billion streams and counting. Even the record-breaking numbers shouldn’t surprise you — the Swifties are so powerful. Of course, with all of her albums being re-recorded and released as Taylor’s version, as well as new music, it’s not surprising to see Taylor at the top of this list.
Taylor Swift made history by taking over the top spot back in February 2024. It was fascinating to see just how quickly she got there. ChartMasters reports that in 2020, she had just 11.9 billion streams (which is a huge feat itself). She then jumped to over 90 million toward the end of 2024 to the now remarkable over 100 billion that she has today. The massive jump that she took was very impressive.
To really put things into perspective, the first artist to reach 1 billion streams in a year was back in 2015 when EDM artist Kygo was the first one to do it, as reported by Sony UK. 1 billion streams seemed like an incredible feat back then, but now we have artists that are continuing to soar way past that.
Bad Bunny
While Taylor Swift seems like she’s going to remain at the top of this all-time list for the foreseeable future, Bad Bunny is not that far behind Taylor. Currently, Bad Bunny is almost at the 87 billion streams mark. And he’s only continuing to grow and trend upwards as he’s trying to close the gap between him and Taylor.
According to ChartMasters, Bad Bunny is the current leader amongst all Latin Spotify artists, and he will remain there for quite some time with numbers like his. ChartMasters also reports that he and Taylor Swift are interchangeable when it comes to the most popular daily Spotify artists. The two have alternated back and forth between the top two for a handful of years.
Drake
For many years before Taylor Swift took the top spot, Drake was number one for quite some time. He topped the Spotify all-time charts for a few years before Taylor Swift’s dominant rise, breaking his records left and right. According to ChartMasters, Drake was the first Spotify artist to reach 30 billion streams in April 2020, then 40 billion in August 2021, and then 50 billion in September 2022.
The way Drake was trending, it seemed as if he would be on top of the charts forever with no one able to catch up with him. Of course, that all changed with the meteoric rise of both Taylor Swift and Bad Bunny. These days, Drake is third on the all-time list as he trails just behind Bad Bunny, fighting to get back to the top of the list.
Rounding Out The Top Ten
Now that we know that Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny, and Drake are considered to be the “big three” when it comes to the most powerful Spotify artists on the all-time streams list, we can discuss the other artists that round out the rest of the top ten.
In fourth place, we have none other than The Weeknd. He currently has over 67 billion streams, and he has something that many of the other artists on this list can’t say. According to Spotify, he has 25 songs with a billion streams or more, which is more songs than any other Spotify artist. With an accomplishment like that, there’s no shame in being only fourth on this list.
Although Ariana Grande might be concentrating more on the acting side of her career these days, she’s still a strong contender on the list of all-time Spotify artists. Currently, Ariana sits at over 52 billion streams and will only continue to trend upward with the recent release of the deluxe version of her most recent album, Eternal Sunshine Deluxe: Brighter Days Ahead.
Following Ariana Grande as one of the top Spotify artists is Ed Sheeran, coming in with over 52 billion streams, according to ChartMasters. Of course, being one of the all-time top artists is a huge feat, but Ed Sheeran has broken a few other records himself. He became the first Spotify artist in history to reach 100 million followers.
Arguably one of the most iconic and influential rappers in the music industry, it should also come as no surprise that Eminem is one of the all-time most-streamed artists on Spotify. Currently, he’s sitting at approximately 49 billion total streams. With his most recent album release in 2024, it’ll only continue to grow.
No all-time list is safe without Justin Bieber, so it really isn’t surprising that he cracks the top ten on the all-time list, as he currently sits at over 47 billion all-time streams. According to the Grammys, Justin Bieber passed 100 million monthly listeners for the first time in his career back in 2021. At the time, this was the highest in Spotify’s history.
Billie Eilish is also one of the most-streamed artists ever, coming in with just over 46 billion streams. Much like her fellow chart-toppers, Billie also broke a record while making her way to the top ten. She was the third and youngest artist to reach 100 million monthly listeners, according to Billboard.
Rounding out the top ten most-streamed Spotify artists of all time is the infamous rapper Kanye West. Currently, Kanye is trailing Billie at number ten with over 45 billion total streams.
While it seems like Taylor Swift will most likely remain at the top of the all-time streams list for a long time, you never know who might sneak up behind her and take the lead as part of the Spotify Artists list. With Bad Bunny and Drake hot on her heels, Taylor might eventually have a fight on her hands. Streaming is slowly becoming the main way the world listens to music, and these streaming chats certainly display that. Only time will tell if the Big Three will remain the Big Three. It should be interesting to watch!
