The artist with the most followers depends on the platform, but Arijit Singh leads on Spotify with over 170 million followers, while Selena Gomez is often cited as having the most followers on Instagram (over 420 million), though other musicians like Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber also have massive followings across platforms.
As of late 2025, Taylor Swift is widely considered the number one artist globally, holding titles as the top-selling artist for 2024 by the IFPI, the most-streamed on Spotify and Apple Music in 2024, and topping Billboard's 21st Century Artists list; however, Bad Bunny was Spotify's most-streamed artist for 2025, showing immense popularity, while Ariana Grande recently topped monthly listeners on Spotify, highlighting different metrics for "number one".
As of early January 2026, The Weeknd is generally considered #1 on Spotify for monthly listeners, but Taylor Swift is the most-streamed artist in Spotify's history and often leads overall popularity, with Bruno Mars recently hitting a historic 150 million monthly listeners. The #1 spot can change daily, but The Weeknd currently leads in recent monthly listeners, while Bad Bunny remains a top contender, and Taylor Swift dominates overall historical streams.
Unsurprisingly Taylor Swift is still the most-streamed artist of all time, recently surpassing 100 billion streams. Following the release of his sixth solo studio album DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS, Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny has overthrough Drake in the second spot and takes the crown for the most-streamed male artist.
Who is the most successful artist of all time?
The answer is that when people are in the top 0.005% of all the listeners globally, they have listened to that song or artist more than 99.995% of all other Spotify users. Additionally, many users also ranked under the top 0.001% of all the listeners globally when they shared their top artists and songs.
Bad Bunny is once again Spotify's Global Top Artist
Rounding out the top five artists are Taylor Swift in second place (but first in the U.S.), followed by The Weeknd (third), Drake (fourth), and Billie Eilish (fifth).
The Weeknd's 'Blinding Lights' Becomes First Song to Hit 5 Billion Streams on Spotify.
Art is a broad human activity using skill and imagination to create works (visual, auditory, performing) that express ideas, evoke emotions, or are appreciated for beauty, ranging from paintings and music to theater and literature, reflecting culture and individual vision across time. It's diverse, subjective, and encompasses activities from fine arts (painting, sculpture) to applied arts (design, crafts) and performing arts (music, dance, theater).
Artists by reputed sales
Spotify holds a 32% global market share in music streaming with 713 million monthly users. Institutional investors own 67.8% of Spotify; founders Ek and Lorentzon control major voting power. Shares of Spotify can be bought through a brokerage account using market or limit orders.
Taylor Swift was the top global artist of 2024 on Spotify, as revealed in the streamer's yearly Wrapped rundown of the most popular recordings. She achieved more than 26.6 billion streams around the world, putting her ahead of The Weeknd at No. 2, Bad Bunny at No. 3, Drake at No.
Super listeners are the driving beat behind your success
On average: They're a real powerhouse: Across all artist sizes, super listeners make up just 2% of an artist's monthly listeners but drive over 18% of monthly streams. They stream like stans: One super listener streams as much as 20 programmed listeners.
A good number of Spotify monthly listeners varies by genre, but typically, 1,000 to 10,000 indicates solid listener engagement. Popular artists often exceed 50,000, reflecting significant streaming trends and highlighting their broader appeal across audiences.
To estimate your streaming royalties, use a simple formula: Royalties = Number of Streams × Average Payout Rate. For example, if you have 500,000 streams on Spotify and the average payout is $0.004 per stream, your estimated royalties would be: 500,000 × $0.004 = $2,000.
Over the course of Elvis' life, he achieved some of the highest accolades in music and film. It is estimated that more than one billion Elvis records have been sold worldwide, more than anyone in record industry history.
Taylor Swift's “All Too Well (10 Minute Version)” has officially surpassed 1 billion streams on Spotify, making it the longest song in history to achieve this milestone.
Taylor Swift is the highest-grossing live music artist of all time, collecting $3 billion according to Pollstar. U2, Coldplay, Bruce Springsteen, and Elton John also passed two-billion mark in concert revenue.
Michael Jackson's Thriller, estimated to have sold 70 million copies worldwide, is the best-selling album ever.
The Top 10 Vocalists – Masters of Melody and Stage Presence!