Since Drake shattered virtually every streaming record with his “Scorpion” album, released in June, it’s no surprise that his 8.2 billion streams in 2018 make him not only Spotify’s most-streamed artist of the year, he’s the platform’s most-streamed artist of all time. “Scorpion” and its song “God’s Plan” also were the most streamed album and song of 2018, respectively; Drake was also the platform’s most-streamed artist in 2015 and 2016.
Following Drake, Post Malone, XXXTentacion, J Balvin and 2017’s most-streamed artist Ed Sheeran rounded out the Top 5 list of Most Streamed Artists in the world.
Ariana Grande’s 48 million plus monthly listeners raised her to the position of Spotify’s most-streamed female artist, following in the footsteps of three-time winner Rihanna.
While hip-hop dominated Spotify’s charts in 2018, Latin music continued to grow rapidly. Three Latin artists — J Balvin, Bad Bunny (both of whom are featured on Cardi B’s smash single “I Like It”) and Ozuna — landed on the top-10 most-streamed artists list, while last year, Daddy Yankee was the only Spanish-speaking artist to reach the top 10. Dominican-American singer Cardi B, the third-most-streamed female artist of 2018, and Cuban-American singer Camila Cabello, the fifth-most-streamed, are also of Latin descent and proudly reflect it in their songs “I Like It” and “Havana” respectively, among others.
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The full lists appear below:
Most-Streamed Female Artists
- God’s Plan – Drake
- SAD! – XXXTENTACION
- rockstar (feat. 21 Savage) – Post Malone
- Psycho (feat. Ty Dolla $ign) – Post Malone
- In My Feelings – Drake
Most-Streamed Albums
- Scorpion – Drake
- beerbongs & bentleys – Post Malone
- ? – XXXTENTACION
- Dua Lipa – Dua Lipa
- ÷ – Ed Sheeran
Most-Streamed Groups (with three or more members)
Imagine Dragons is Spotify’s most-streamed group for 2018, but K-pop sensation BTS also enjoyed plenty of global listening. Maroon 5 and Migos come in third and fourth, and Coldplay took fifth.
Spotify’s Most-Followed Playlists
Genres That Grew the Most in 2018
