Spotify's monthly listeners metric is a go-to benchmark for evaluating an artist's reach in the largest streaming platform. The Top 500 Global Rank provided by Spotify to list the biggest artists on their platform is based on this statistics. It reflects the amount of unique users engaging with at least one song from an artist over the last 28 days.

But what factors contribute to being among the artists with the most monthly listeners on Spotify, and is this measure significant? Dive into this daily-updated overview to explore the global music scene's movers and shakers.

Most monthly listeners - Top 10,000

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The meaning of Monthly Listeners

The monthly listeners count on Spotify tracks how many unique users play an artist's music in the past 28 days. Unlike total streams, this number emphasizes breadth of audience reach rather than repeat plays, giving single-hit artists and viral tracks a chance to shine.

This methodology tends to favor artists with one massive hit that overshadows the rest of their catalog. Examples include Radiohead, Oasis, Mariah Carey, MC Hammer, among many others, whose signature songs have a disproportionately large popularity.

Additionally, this measure can inflate songs heavily featured on major playlists. The Christmas season provides a clear example: artists with seasonal hits see their monthly listeners counts surge as Spotify promotes holiday-themed playlists.

Another factor skewing these rankings is collaborations. Being featured on a major hit, even via a remix, grants the featured artist all the monthly listeners associated with that song. This can significantly boost the stats of lesser-known artists who appear on tracks by more prominent acts.

Ultimately, the ranking of artists with the most monthly listeners doesn’t necessarily reflect the most popular artists or even those with the greatest global reach.

Artists who held the top spot

Despite its limitations as a metric, reaching the #1 spot as the artist with the most monthly listeners on Spotify is no accident. Achieving this milestone requires a massive catalog, chart-topping current hits, and extraordinary global reach to dominate the pop music scene.

Over the years, only a select few artists have managed to claim this position. In 2023, just two stars reached the top: The Weeknd and Taylor Swift. Notably, they became the first male and female artists, respectively, to surpass 100 million monthly listeners on Spotify worldwide.

This year, both led the ranking most days, especially The Weeknd, but Billie Eilish and currently Bruno Mars also joined the party thanks to super successful hits.

Looking at the entire decade, only seven  artists have achieved the #1 spot: the four aforementioned artists plus Ed Sheeran, Justin Bieber, and Ariana Grande. These names represent true titans of the music industry.

Interestingly, past leaders included artists from genres beyond pop, such as hip-hop (Drake), R&B (Khalid), and Latin music (Daddy Yankee, J Balvin). However, as Spotify's subscriber base has grown significantly over this decade, especially in Asia, dominating the platform now demands a strong pop appeal, making it increasingly difficult for other genres to claim the top position.

Most monthly listeners' peaks

If you are wondering where your favorite artist peaked, below table list the highest number recorded by each one since we started tracking them in November 2022.

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FAQ: common questions about Spotify monthly listeners

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