There's no single "No. 1 singer" as it's subjective, but current top artists by streams include Ariana Grande (Spotify monthly listeners) and Bad Bunny (Spotify Global Top Artist 2025), while Taylor Swift dominates charts; historically, Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley are often cited as all-time greats, notes ipassio, Wikipedia, newsroom.spotify.com, Billboard, Wikipedia, and Wikipedia.
The following list contains the most-streamed artists on the audio streaming platform Spotify. As of December 2025, American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift is the most-streamed artist, and Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny is the most-streamed male artist in Spotify's history.
There's no single "number 1" artist, as fame is subjective, but Leonardo da Vinci is widely considered the most famous for masterpieces like the Mona Lisa and his genius as a Renaissance man, while Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, and Michelangelo consistently rank among the most famous historical painters. In contemporary music, artists like Taylor Swift and Bad Bunny dominate current charts, showing fame varies by medium and era.
The "number one artist" depends on the metric, but currently, Taylor Swift is often cited as the top global artist, leading in Spotify streams and Billboard rankings for overall artist performance, while The Weeknd often holds the top spot for most monthly listeners on Spotify. Bad Bunny remains dominant in global streams for previous years and holds top album status, with Drake and Billie Eilish also consistently high.
In early July 2025, a milestone unfolded on the world's leading music platform: Arijit Singh, the iconic Indian playback singer, officially surpassed global superstar Taylor Swift to become the most‑followed artist on Spotify, amassing over 151 million followers. Swift now holds around 139.6 million followers.
Most Popular Artists
Michael Jackson has sold over 1 billion records worldwide across all credits. He's the best selling artist in music history.
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They explain, "Taylor isn't just popular — she's engineered an entirely new era of fan-driven music culture," adding, "More people may know who she is now, but Michael Jackson is still bigger in cultural footprint."
The number one YouTube channel by subscriber count is MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson), who surpassed Indian music network T-Series in early 2025 and now leads with over 450 million subscribers, known for massive stunts, giveaways, and philanthropy. T-Series remains a strong second, followed by children's content creators like Cocomelon, making MrBeast the top individual creator on the platform, according to data from late 2025 and early 2026.
There's no single "number 1 artist of all time" as it's subjective, but Leonardo da Vinci often tops lists for visual art due to masterpieces like the Mona Lisa, while The Beatles are frequently cited as the best-selling music group ever, and Michael Jackson or Elvis Presley are often named as top solo music artists by sales and influence. Modern metrics like Spotify streams point to artists like Bad Bunny or Taylor Swift for recent dominance.
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.
The person widely cited as having 4.8 billion fans is Michael Jackson, often referred to as the "King of Pop," with estimates suggesting his fanbase reached nearly two-thirds of the world's population during his peak, making him one of history's most popular figures.
Top artists globally
In November 2005, a Nike advertisement featuring Brazilian football player Ronaldinho became the first video to reach 1,000,000 views. The billion-view mark was first passed by Gangnam Style in December 2012. On January 13, 2022, Pinkfong's "Baby Shark" became the first video to hit 10,000,000,000 views.
Progression of most weeks at number one
Songs that tied the current record at a given time are noted below the table. The current record holder is "All I Want For Christmas Is You" by Mariah Carey at 22 weeks, and the longest record held is "One Sweet Day" by Carey and Boyz II Men with 8,554 days. Ref.
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The #1 trending song today varies slightly by platform, but "Die With A Smile" by Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars is huge globally and on pop charts, while "Man I Need" by Olivia Dean is a top hit in Australia, and "End of Beginning" by Djo is #1 on Spotify's global chart, showing different popular tracks across charts.