The Most-Streamed Music On Spotify In 2023

Similarly, Spotify tells us that Colombians became "the fifth-largest consumer of Mexican music in 2023," while Afrobeats became "one of the fastest-growing genres on Spotify." Big events such as the Eurovision or the Eras tour can dramatically influence how an artist performs over the year, too. So which perfromers made the biggest impact on a global scale in 2023?

Did this help her become one of the most listened-to artists in 2023? Perhaps. "Cherry" and "Peppers" have more than 334 million listens between them. But Del Rey's 2023 album, Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd, and subsequent tour probably have something to do with it, too.

This was the first time this had ever happened for a female artist with a Spanish-language album. That crossover success was bolstered by a tour and an incredible performance at the VMAs. Her most popular song on Spotify is 2023's "PROVENZA," which has more than a billion streams.

"Whether you streamed me all day or once, this year changed my life," SZA said in her message. 2023 saw her chart-topping album, SOS, continue to do business and her single "Kill Bill" become a number-one sensation. She topped it all off with a tour, too.

Scott’s crazy success in 2023 was also thanks to a viral moment following the Giants of Africa Festival in the summer. The event saw a dance from Tyla's hit song "Water" take the world by storm — and Scott later collaborated on a wildly successful remix of the track.

The 29-date Ferxxo Nitro Jam Underground Tour brought him closer to fans who can't get enough of his signature green shorts and viral songs. "I really want to connect with people when I’m singing and performing," he told Variety in 2023. With almost 50 million monthly Spotify listeners, he is having no trouble with that.

Peso Pluma's music is called corridos tumbados — a style that combines traditional Mexican music with modern hooks. "I make corridos tumbados because they are a piece of the large puzzle that makes up Mexico, and I want to be the bridge that unites tradition with the present," the artist told Spotify in 2023.

His last album came out in 2022, and he took Her Loss on the road with 21 Savage in 2023. This was Drake's first tour in five years. He’d released four albums since the Aubrey & the Three Migos Tour of 2018, so this show was his chance to mark "a celebration of the last decade."

The Weeknd also has the most-streamed individual song in Spotify history with "Blinding Light" — which now has more than 3.9 billion streams. It should come as little surprise, then, that The Weeknd's ongoing world tour, After Hours Til Dawn, had grossed an incredible $350 million by July 2023.

But that's not to say that it's all bad news. “Bad Bunny has had an enormous year and is still very much leading the cultural conversation,” Spotify's Sulinna Ong told The New York Times in 2023. His album nadie sabe lo que va a pasar mañana was also one of the stand-out successes of the year.

Meanwhile, Swift's Eras tour is a juggernaut that could gross as much as $2 billion by the end of 2024, and her movie of the tour became the highest-grossing concert movie ever. And we haven't even mentioned her new albums and songs being streamed and sold in the millions.

Elsewhere, the release of Barbie saw Aqua's "Barbie World" and Dua Lipa's "Dance The Night" have a big impact on listeners. An artist embarking on a worldwide retrospective tour of their entire back catalogue would also propel a couple of their songs into the top-ten global songs of 2023.

Swift's co-writer, Jack Antonoff, told Billboard that the artist had originally thought they "shouldn’t expect ["Anti-Hero"] to ever go to no. 1" because it was "strange and personal." Yet the track reigned supreme on the Billboard chart for eight weeks and is evidently a fan favorite.

It instantly smashed the record for the most-streamed Latin song on Spotify in 24 hours, with a phenomenal 14.4 million streams. The track also took the title of the most-streamed Latin song on Spotify in a single week, with 80.6 million streams. We couldn't escape it, so we know Piqué couldn't, either.

The collaboration brought Rema into the mainstream after years of being a star in Africa. It also brought the pair a Grammy nomination and created the first Afrobeats track to enter the Spotify Billions Club. It currently has 1,140,863,735 streams on the platform.

Enya gave the producers a list of acceptable alternate song titles — and Metro Boomin picked "Creepin'" out of the list. “It ended up being a blessing because it’s the best name for it,” he told Billboard. The saga had a happy ending for everybody, as the song has since entered the Spotify Billions Club.

"Cruel Summer" crossed the one-billion-streams threshold in September, making it the fifth Swift track to reach that number. And Swift had anything but a cruel summer as this news came hot on the heels of her becoming the first female artist to have over 100 million monthly listeners on Spotify.

"'Ella Baila Sola' as the global song of the summer is a true testament to how Música Mexicana is dominating the international music scene, becoming one of the top growth-driving genres globally," Spotify's Antonio Vazquez told Variety, adding, "The strong appeal of this song reflects the power of Música Mexicana, proving that its moment in the sun is more than a trend."

"Seven" became the fastest-ever song to reach one million streams when it powered past that figure in just eight days of release. The song continued to dominate the Spotify streaming chart when it also reached one billion streams in the fastest-ever time: 108 days.

"As It Was" became a member of the Billions Club in July 2022, just three months after its initial release. The track is now getting close to joining the ultra-exclusive three-billion-streams club, with more than 2.8 billion streams to its name. Only six other songs have made it that far: "One Dance" by Drake, "Dance Monkey" by Tones and I, "Sunflower" by Post Malone and Swae Lee, "Someone You Loved" by Lewis Capaldi, "Shape of You" by Ed Sheeran, and "Blinding Lights" by The Weeknd.

"I was really scared that people would harm each other, 'cause some people are f'ing strange," the singer said. "But it was a joke." SZA needn't have worried, though. The song was such a hit with fans that it was the second-most streamed hit of 2023. To date, it has been streamed over 1.4 billion times.

"Flowers" continued to be successful throughout the summer, reaching the number seven spot on Spotify's "Songs of the Summer" ranking. By year's end, "Flowers" has been streamed an incredible 1.6 billion times. Hopefully, Cyrus treated herself to some flowers.

Spotify counts a song stream as when someone listened to at least 30 seconds of a song. An album stream count is all the song streams from one release added together over the year. It's interesting to note that in 2023, many of the most-streamed albums were released before the start of the year — including the winner.

"Some albums and songs just have more replay value than others," he added. Replayability is key to appearing in this ranking, and Styles has got it in spades. Harry's House placed second in 2022's Spotify Wrapped, and people still listened to it in droves in 2023.

Peso Pluma also made a historic appearance on late-night TV. His barnstorming performance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon marked the first time a Música Mexicana song had ever been played on late night. Pluma's only 24 years old, too, so the only way is up.

The December 2022 release of HEROES & VILLAINS started 2023 with a bang for Metro. Other highlights of his year included an outstanding set at Coachella and creating the soundtrack for the movie Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. His hit song "Creepin'" was also featured on Spotify Wrapped.

When this album first dropped, the COVID pandemic ended any possible tour to support it. Swift has released multiple albums since then — including another that will soon feature on this list — leading USA Today to claim in 2021 that Lover was her "forgotten masterpiece." Well, it's certainly no longer forgotten...

The country star is the third most-streamed artist in the U.S., and his songs "Last Night" and "You Proof" are the first and eighth most-streamed songs in the U.S., respectively. Wallen also has two records in the U.S. most-streamed albums ranking: Dangerous: The Double Album is the fifth most-streamed, and One Thing At A Time is top of the tree.

"I wasn’t unhappy, but I wasn’t happy either," she continued. "So every day I’d say to myself, 'It's okay, mañana será bonito — tomorrow will be beautiful.'" The phrase was seemingly prophetic because the resulting album's debut was the most-streamed Spanish-language release from a female artist in Spotify history.

But then the artist did drop a deluxe version of Starboy in 2023, and his world-spanning tour has no doubt forced people to revisit his past hits. TikTok has also played its part in elevating a couple of songs from his back catalogue, with "Die for You" getting a boost from the social media platform.

It probably didn't hurt that "Kill Bill" was also one of the biggest songs of the year. 2023 was such a success for SZA that Billboard named her its Woman of the Year.

In 2023 Midnights was only the third most-streamed album in the U.S. behind Morgan Wallen’s and SZA’s records. It was the biggest streaming hit in the U.K., though, and the worldwide reach of her fanbase pushed Swift's release (almost) to the top.

Un Verano Sin Ti also had the honor of being named the most-streamed release ever in Spotify history. It replaced Ed Sheeran's ÷ to head up the list — all the more impressive considering that Sheeran's album was released five years before Un Verano Sin Ti.

The only major theme that brought people to podcasts was a desire to learn more about the topics of the day. "A podcast feels like you are talking to your best friend about the story you are obsessing about," said Hale. "They also become artifacts of what our culture’s reactions and opinions were in the moment."

One of the dominant issues of 2023 was the rise and threat of artificial intelligence. Ted Talks Daily has covered this several times — as well as every other kind of subject. Its limited run times — episodes run between ten and 35 minutes — make it the perfect place to dive in and learn more.

Spotify didn't release how many listeners each podcast has, but it's clear that Bartlett is doing all right for himself. The podcast was spun off into a book in August 2023, and Bartlett is on the panel of Dragons' Den — the British version of Shark Tank.

Meanwhile, Spotify's listenership, according to a study from Cumulus and Signal Hill, has a more balanced gender divide. So while Serial Killers is still incredibly popular on the platform, it could perhaps have charted higher had it been able to reach more of its target audience.

The show sees the stand-up comedian chatting with guests about current affairs — but not in the way you might find on an NPR show. It's a more youthful approach, designed to appeal to a younger audience. And it's working: Spotify named This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von as the top rising podcast of 2023.

Its website claims that the podcast has covered at least 630 true-crime stories and has been downloaded over 500 million times. The team also says they've donated $643,000 to charities to support victims and their families.

These days, Shetty hosts the "no. 1 health podcast" and wants to "make wisdom go viral." That mission is well and truly on its way as On Purpose with Jay Shetty is one of the most-listened-to podcasts of the year, with new episodes dropping twice a week.

Spotify made the podcast exclusive to its platform in 2023. "I couldn't be more honored to be their exclusive partner, and work together to allow anything goes to blossom in ways it couldn’t have anywhere else," Chamberlain said at the time.

But Dr. Andrew Huberman, the host, told Time that his popularity is down to people's appetite for learning. "I certainly believe people are most curious about themselves and the people close to them and why the world works the way it does," he said in June 2023.

"My show is one of the biggest shows in the world," she told The New York Times in 2022. "In my category, there is nothing above it." Cooper did confess, though, that her goal was to knock The Joe Rogan Experience off the number-one spot...

Will Rogan stay with Spotify next year? Will Spotify be willing to part with the reported $200 million they paid for him in 2021? Rogan has his share of critics — who've labeled him an "idiot," a "danger to society," and an "enormous threat to public health." But there's no doubt that it's going to take a lot to topple this podcast king.