Spotify is releasing their annual yearly reports for all of its users that give them a breakdown of their most listened to artists, songs, albums, podcasts, and more for the past year. Before they do though, they release their own stats for the artists and music that has topped their charts for the year. For 2020, Bad Bunny was the world’s most streamed artist with more than 8.3 billion streams of his discography.
Bad Bunny, also known as Benito Ocasio, is the 26-year-old who was also given the accolade of 2020’s most streamed album, with his sophomore record “YHLQMDLG”, which was released back in February.
Last week he dropped a surprise album titled “El Ultimo Tour Del Mundo,” and the lead single from the album, “Dakiti,” is currently the most streamed song in the world. For 2020 in general, The Weeknd received the reward for most streamed song with his record-breaking hit “Blinding Lights.”
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Bad Bunny is a Puerto Rican rapper, singer, and fashion star who is no stranger to charting on some of the world’s most popular streaming services. Last year he was the fifth most streamed artist in the world, so his placement in the top ten this year, let alone as number one, isn’t that shocking.
In general Bad Bunny has received massive commercial success and critical acclaims within the past year alone. He won the Latin Grammy for Best Reggaeton Performance in October, and is currently nominated for two awards at the 2021 Grammys.
Runners-up for the most-streamed male artists in 2020 are Drake, J Balvin, Juice WRLD, and the Weeknd; whose album “After Hours” broke records on the charts this year and came in as the second most streamed album of the year, despite being controversially snubbed from receiving any Grammy nominations this year. Post Malone, Harry Styles, and Dua Lipa take the other top 5 positions for most-streamed albums.
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In terms of the artists with the most streamed songs of 2020, The Weeknd received the top spot with “Blinding Lights,” Tones & I followed with their popular TikTok song “Dance Monkey”, then its Roddy Ricch with “The Box”, Saint Jhn with “Roses”, and finally Dua Lipa with “Don’t Start Now.”
The most streamed female artists for 2020 in this order are Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Dua Lipa, and Halsey.
The most popular podcast for Spotify this year was the Joe Rogan Podcast, marking a massively successful first year for the production. Rogan is also thought to be the world’s highest-paid broadcaster, however, these claims are unconfirmed.
Spotify started 2020 with 124 million paid subscribers and by the end of the year they had over 144 million; overall the platform has over 320 million users, the remaining amount of users accounts for those who use Spotify’s free package.
Eric Mastrota is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in New York. A graduate of SUNY New Paltz, he reports on world news, culture, and lifestyle. You can reach him at eric.mastrota@thenationaldigest.com.
