The most streamed songs and artists on Spotify in every country around the world

Tue 6 Feb 2024 8.45 Olivia Cole

The wait is finally over! The 66th Grammy Winners have been officially announced at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Sunday night. Phoebe Bridgers was the show’s biggest winner, receiving a total of four awards. Meanwhile, Taylor Swift made history as the first artist to win Album of the Year four times after claiming the prize for ‘Midnights’. Record of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance went to ‘Flowers’ by Miley Cyrus, winning her the first Grammys of her career, while SZA came with 9 nominations, more than any other artist, and left with 3 wins.

The events from music’s biggest night prompted the team at CasinoGuardian to take a look at the most popular songs of the past twelve months. Hardly a surprise, but some of the Grammy winners’ biggest hits have been among the most loved songs this past year, including Miley Cyrus’s “Flowers”, which became the most streamed track on Spotify for 2023.

Using Spotify Charts, the team at CasinoGuardian discovered the most streamed songs and artists in a total of 72 countries around the world. Covering weekly chart data for all 72 major markets, the graphics we created illustrate the most popular songs and artists among local audiences. We also decided to look at the most streamed tracks globally between January 2023 and January 2024 and these are the top 20:

Unprecedented Amount of Audio Content But We Still Play the Same Songs

As of January 2024, Spotify is available in 237 countries and territories and has more than 574 million users, which makes it the most popular audio streaming service in the world. Roughly 7.2% of the world’s population listens to music, audiobooks, and podcasts via the platform. The number of songs has increased from around 70 million in 2020 to more than 100 million at the beginning of 2024. Considering the average length of a Spotify track is 3 minutes and 17 seconds, we calculated that it would take a person more than 624 years of nonstop listening to hear all 100 million tracks.

Despite this extraordinarily huge variety of music on the platform, people tend to listen to more or less the same songs over and over again. Moreover, millions of people from all over the world tend to enjoy the same songs and artists. Last year’s most streamed artist on Spotify, Taylor Swift, is a great example of that – she was among the most listened-to artists in a large number of countries. She has 551 tracks on the platform and a total of 69.35 billion streams, 26.1 billion of which since January 1, 2023. None of her songs, however, became the platform’s most streamed track of 2023; the crown belongs to “Flowers” by Miley Cyrus, a song that has amassed more than 1.6 billion streams after being released in January of 2023.

“Flowers” was the most streamed song in Australia last year, as well as in Belgium and Austria. More importantly, it was in the top positions in multiple countries, including Canada, the United Kingdom, and Germany. The song with the highest number of top positions, however, is “Kill Bill” by American singer SZA, which was released in December of 2022. Last year, it was the most streamed track in Malaysia, New Zealand, the United Arab Emirates, Iceland, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia.

How Do Musical Tastes Differ Around the World?

Music is a universal language and while it can unite people of different nationalities, ethnicities and ages, musical taste is a product of culture. Interestingly enough, musical tastes are also based on repetition and familiarity, which means that you are likely to prefer songs that are similar to the ones you have already heard. This easily explains the popularity of certain genres, styles, and artists but it also implies that what sounds like music to one’s ears is very, very different for people in different countries.

According to a 2019 study published in Nature, people across Asia tend to listen to more relaxing music, compared to other regions. People in South America, on the other hand, prefer faster and more arousing music than the rest of the world. We can check if the theory is correct by tracking the most streamed songs of 2023 in different regions and countries.

Europe

It may come as a surprise to many but Europe’s 2023 music streaming map seems just as diverse, if not more, than that of South America. Spotify Charts includes data for 30 European countries and most of them have very specific musical tastes according to the figures for 2023. The song, which was the top streamer in the most countries, is “I’m Good (Blue)” by French DJ David Guetta and American singer Bebe Rexha. The dance-pop track was released in August 2022 but remained hugely popular in 2023, as well, especially in Switzerland, Slovakia, Latvia, and the Czech Republic where it was last year’s top Spotify track.

“Flowers” by Miley Cyrus was the most streamed track in Austria and Belgium last year, while “Creepin’” by Metro Boomin with The Weeknd & 21 Savage was atop the streaming charts in Cyprus and Lithuania. In the United Kingdom, the most popular song on Spotify last year was “Sprinter” by rappers Central Cee and Dave. The German audience, on the other hand, preferred the pop-rock hit “Komet” by singer Udo Lindenberg and rapper Apache 207, which quickly became one of the most listened-to songs in the country after being released in January 2023. In France, the top position is for “Bolide allemand” by French rapper SDM, while in Italy, the most streamed track of 2023 is “Quevedo: Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 52” by Argentine producer Bizarrap and Spanish rapper Quevedo.

North America

Musical tastes across North America vary wildly depending on the specific region and country. The most streamed track of 2023 in Canada and the United States, for instance, is “Last Night” by country singer Morgan Wallen. The song peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and remained for 16 weeks at the top, the most ever for a non-collaboration song. Last year, it amassed more than 440.5 million streams in the U.S. and another 72.2 million in Canada.

When it comes to the Latin American part of the continent, however, Manuel Turizo and Bad Bunny dominate the streaming platform. “La Bachata” by the Colombian reggaeton singer Manuel Turizo was 2023 top track in Panama, Costa Rica, and Guatemala. Puerto Rican rapper and singer Bad Bunny, on the other hand, has collaborated on three nations’ top Spotify tracks for 2023. These are “La Jumpa” (Arcángel, Bad Bunny), last year’s most streamed song in Mexico and the Dominican Republic, and “Me Porto Bonito” (Bad Bunny, Chencho Corleone), which was the top track in El Salvador.

South America

Last year, Manuel Turizo with his “La Bachata” was hugely popular across South America, as well. The song was the most streamed track in Peru, Paraguay, and Uruguay. In Brazil, the song with the most streams last year, over 333.6 million, was “Nosso Quadro” by AgroPlay and Ana Castela. In Argentina, Spotify users enjoyed “Un Finde | CROSSOVER #2” by the Argentinian producer Big One and artists FMK and Ke Personajes.

Chile’s top 2023 track was “TQG”, a successful collaboration between the Colombian singers Karol G and Shakira. Columbia’s most streamed song, on the other hand, was “Hey Mor” by Ozuna and Feid, while Feid’s “Feliz Cumpleaños Ferxxo” was the top track in Ecuador. In Venezuela, “La Jumpa” by Arcángel and Bad Bunny was 2023’s most listened-to song on Spotify. Overall, people all over the continent prefer Latin American music in all of its styles and genres, including Latin pop, reggaeton, bachata, sertanejo, and more.

Asia

Home to 40 countries, Asia is the largest continent by both land mass and population so finding one song or genre enjoyed by everyone across the continent is impossible. Do Asians really prefer relaxing music? Looking at the results of our Spotify study, we can easily see the large variety of musical tastes in different countries. While SZA’s “Kill Bill” is the most streamed song of 2023 in Saudi Arabia and the UAE (the Middle East), and Indonesia and the Philippines (both in Southeast Asia), “Ditto” by the Korean girl group NewJeans was the most popular track of the year among Spotify users in Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand.

With more than 13.7 million Spotify streams in India, “Maan Meri Jaan” by Indian rapper King was the most listened-to song in the country last year. The top position in Japan is for “Subtitle” by the pop rock group Official Hige Dandism, while more to the west, in Turkey, the most streamed track in 2023 was “Antidepresan” by Mert Demir and Mabel Matiz. BTS’ hugely popular 2021 song “Butter” was the most streamed track in Vietnam last year.

Africa

Spotify publishes chart data for only three African countries, namely Egypt, Morocco, and South Africa. In Egypt, the most streamed song on the platform last year was “Alo Aleky”, a mixture of traditional Arabic music with modern pop influences by Egyptian artist and producer Mohammed Saeed. The top track of 2023 in Morocco is “Ghazali (feat. Bryan Mg)” by Dystinct. The song, which was released in June 2022, became viral during the FIFA World Cup in Qatar. Since then, it has amassed an impressive 58.3 million Spotify streams.

Another interesting song comes from South Africa and this is “Ngeke” by the Big Nuz Feat. Dj Yamza. The track, which was the most streamed song in the country in 2023, was brought by the kwaito and gqom trio from Durban, Big Nuz. Both genres are specific to South Africa – they blend house music with traditional African sounds, samples, and deep bass lines. For those wondering how that sounds, we recommend hearing “Ngeke” on Spotify where the stream count is already over 6 million.

Oceania

It seems that “Flowers” and “Kill Bill” have been hugely popular with audiences down under. With 61.9 million listens, Miley Cyrus’ song was the most streamed track in Australia last year, while SZA’s hit song named after the Quentin Tarantino martial arts films made it to the number one position in New Zealand.

Top 20 Songs in 2023 Globally

With 1.65 billion streams globally in 2023, “Flowers” by Miley Cyrus became Spotify’s top song of the year after being released in August of the same year. Second on the list is SZA’s “Kill Bill” with 1.42 billion global streams, while third is Harry Styles’ “As It Was” with 1.17 billion streams globally. Three more tracks were played more than a billion times by Spotify users in 2023. These are “Seven” by Jung Kook feat. Latto (1.09 billion streams), “Ella Baila Sola” by Eslabon Armado with Peso Pluma (1.04 billion streams), and Taylor Swift’s “Cruel Summer” (1.04 billion streams).

“Flowers” has been hugely successful but another track has gained even greater popularity within a shorter period on the platform; this is “Seven” (Explicit Ver.) by Jung Kook and Latto. It’s been a wild ride for the viral K-pop song, which became available on Spotify on November 3, 2023. According to our calculations, while “Flowers” counts an average of 11.69 million global streams per day since its release, “Seven” has an average of 18.89 million daily streams since being uploaded.

The stats for the rest of the top twenty songs for 2023 are much less impressive. “As It Was” by Harry Styles has been played an average of 4.9 million times per day over the 600 days it’s been on the platform, followed by “Kill Bill” by SZA with 3.9 million average daily streams and “Ella Baila Sola” by Eslabon Armado and Peso Pluma, which has 3.5 million average daily streams.

How Much Do Artists Earn From Their Songs?

Streaming has become a major source of revenue for music artists in the past decade or so but Spotify does not share how exactly it pays artists and publishers (and other rights holders such as labels, recording companies, songwriters, etc.). According to a recent article on Ditto Music, Spotify pays rights holders between $0.003 and $0.005 per stream on average. The payout system is actually much more complex and the actual money artists receive from the platform depends on a large number of factors, including the number of subscribers an artist has, the number of paid or premium subscribers, the number of streams, as well as the so-called total “streaming revenue pool”.

For the sake of simplicity, however, we decided to use Ditto Music’s Spotify Royalties Calculator to see how much artists have earned from their songs in 2023. These are, of course, rough estimations, while the real figures are kept secret by Spotify and are likely much more different. According to the calculator, last year’s most streamed song, “Flowers” by Miley Cyrus brought in approximately $7,222,809.98 in royalties from its 1.65 billion global streams in 2023. SZA (or other rights holders) earned $6,188,550.08 from “Kill Bill”, whereas Harry Styles’ “As It Was” made $5,126,885.03 on the streaming platform in 2023.

Who Is the Most Streamed Artist In Every Country?

Last year, Taylor Swift was the most streamed artist on Spotify globally, amassing more than 26.1 billion listens on the platform within just twelve months. But was she the top streamed artist in individual countries or her streams were from a handful of nations that were apparently huge fans of her 551 tracks available on Spotify?

It’s a little bit of both, actually – of the 72 markets we looked at, Swift was the most listened to artist in 8, including the United States (2.57 billion streams), as well as the Philippines (1.25 billion), the United Kingdom (452.8 million), and Australia (319.96 million). She was also among the top 10 or top 20 most streamed artists in a large number of markets, which contributed to her impressive 26.1 billion global streams last year.

Perhaps even more impressive, however, is what the data reveals about one of the most popular and influential people in the music industry today, the Puerto Rican rapper, singer, actor, and professional wrestler Bad Bunny. Coming second to Taylor Swift in terms of global streams, Bad Bunny actually dominated the charts in more countries than the U.S. pop star.

The 29-year-old rapper known for his international hits mostly in the genres of reggaeton, Latin trap, pop and hip-hop was the most streamed artist in various countries across Central America such as Costa Rica, Panama and Guatemala.

American country star Morgan Wallen was the top streamed artist in Canada with 294.5 million streams, while the most listened-to artist in Mexico was rapper Peso Pluma (4.91 billion streams). The following map shows the most streamed artists across North and Central America:

Bad Bunny was the top streamed artist in multiple South American countries, too, including Peru, Ecuador, and Venezuela. Brazil’s top artist in 2023 was sertanejo singer Ana Castela, while Feid topped the streaming charts in Colombia.

Taylor Swift is the top-streamed artist in Australia and New Zealand, as well.

Canadian singer and pop sensation The Weeknd was also among the most popular artists on Spotify last year. In terms of global streams, he ranks third after Taylor Swift and Bad Bunny but is also third if we look at the number of countries where he was in the top position in 2023. Last year, The Weeknd was the most streamed artist in 7 markets. Interestingly, unlike Bad Bunny, for instance, whose popularity is evident mostly in Latin America and in the Spanish-speaking world, the Weeknd seems to have a more worldwide appeal. He was the top artist in Malaysia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, Luxembourg, and Latvia.

What about some of the other major markets in Europe? Italy’s top artist of 2023 was rapper Sfera Ebbasta (1.01 billion streams), while in Spain, it was rapper and singer Quevedo (1.39 billion streams). In Germany, the most listened-to artist on Spotify last year with 440.8 million plays was the German singer of Turkish origin AYLIVA.

The top artist in Japan was the rock group Mrs. GREEN APPLE with more than 497 million streams in 2023. In South Korea, the top position is for BTS member Jimin (95.6 million streams); another member of the K-pop boy band, Jung Kook, was the most streamed artist in Thailand (237.4 million streams) and Vietnam (166.8 million streams) in 2023. The most streamed artist in India last year was Arijit Singh whose songs were played more than 3.55 billion times (in India alone).

Spotify users in the African countries we looked into preferred local artists, according to the data. In Morocco, the most streamed artist of 2023 was Moroccan rapper ElGrandeToto, while in South Africa, the top artist was DJ Maphorisa.

American country star Morgan Wallen was the top streamed artist in Canada with 294.5 million streams. In Germany, the most listened-to artist on Spotify last year with 440.8 million plays was the German singer of Turkish origin AYLIVA. The top artist in Japan was the rock group Mrs. GREEN APPLE with more than 497 million streams in 2023. In South Korea, the top position is for BTS member Jimin (95.6 million streams); another member of the K-pop boy band, Jung Kook, was the most streamed artist in Thailand (237.4 million streams) and Vietnam (166.8 million streams) in 2023.

Songs That Were Rediscovered by Younger Generations in 2023

Another interesting finding from the above ranking is that certain older songs were rediscovered by Spotify users in 2023. Typically, new music peaks in popularity shortly after being released but sometimes, certain tunes break the conventional life cycle of songs. One such track found in Spotify’s top 20 tracks of 2023 is Taylor Swift’s “Cruel Summer” from 2019. We calculated that 65.76% of its total streams were actually from last year, most likely as a result of her ultra-successful Eras Tour, which started on March 17, 2023, and is scheduled to conclude in December of this year.

Rema’s Afrobeats hit song with Selena Gomez “Calm Down” also became viral in 2022, shortly after being released. But most of its streams, 75.38%, are from 2023. “Die For You”, a 2016 song by Canadian singer The Weeknd, also became newly viral last year with 42.83% of all listens on the platform being from 2023.

The most interesting song in this regard, however, is “I Wanna Be Yours” by Arctic Monkeys, which was released back in 2013 as part of the English band’s AM album. It is an adaptation of an even older poem by John Cooper Clarke, who released it in 1982. In 2023, however, younger generations shared the song (originally written more than 40 years ago) in the form of a TikTok trend and used it as an aesthetic for their videos on the app. As a result, more than half of all listens on Spotify (51.79%) are from 2023.

Tom Odell’s “Another Love” from 2013 had a similar fate; it resurfaced in 2022 on TikTok and quickly amassed 1 billion streams on Spotify by September of that year. Currently, it has more than 2.1 billion global streams on the platform.