Drake, Ariana Grande Top Spotify’s Year-End ‘Wrapped’ Charts

By Variety Staff

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Since Drake shattered virtually every streaming record with his “Scorpion” album, released in June, it’s no surprise that his 8.2 billion streams in 2018 make him not only Spotify’s most-streamed artist of the year, he’s the platform’s most-streamed artist of all time. “Scorpion” and its song “God’s Plan” also were the most streamed album and song of 2018, respectively; was also the platform’s most-streamed artist in 2015 and 2016.

Following Drake, Post Malone, XXXTentacion, J Balvin and 2017’s most-streamed artist Ed Sheeran rounded out the Top 5 list of Most Streamed Artists in the world.

Ariana Grande’s 48 million plus monthly listeners raised her to the position of ’s most-streamed female artist, following in the footsteps of three-time winner Rihanna.

While hip-hop dominated Spotify’s charts in 2018, Latin music continued to grow rapidly. Three Latin artists — J Balvin, Bad Bunny (both of whom are featured on Cardi B’s smash single “I Like It”) and Ozuna — landed on the top-10 most-streamed artists list, while last year, Daddy Yankee was the only Spanish-speaking artist to reach the top 10. Dominican-American singer Cardi B, the third-most-streamed female artist of 2018, and Cuban-American singer Camila Cabello, the fifth-most-streamed, are also of Latin descent and proudly reflect it in their songs “I Like It” and “Havana” respectively, among others.

The full lists appear below:

Most-Streamed Artists

• Drake
• Post Malone
• XXXTENTACION
• J Balvin
• Ed Sheeran

Most-Streamed Female Artists

• Dua Lipa
• Cardi B
• Taylor Swift
• Camila Cabello

Most-Streamed Tracks

• God’s Plan – Drake
• SAD! – XXXTENTACION
• rockstar (feat. 21 Savage) – Post Malone
• Psycho (feat. Ty Dolla $ign) – Post Malone
• In My Feelings – Drake

Most-Streamed Albums

• Scorpion – Drake
• beerbongs & bentleys – Post Malone
• ? – XXXTENTACION
• Dua Lipa – Dua Lipa
• ÷ – Ed Sheeran

Most-Streamed Groups (with three or more members)

Imagine Dragons is Spotify’s most-streamed group for 2018, but K-pop sensation BTS also enjoyed plenty of global listening. Maroon 5 and Migos come in third and fourth, and Coldplay took fifth.

• Imagine Dragons
• BTS
• Maroon 5
• Migos
• Coldplay

Spotify’s Most-Followed Playlists

• Today’s Top Hits
• RapCaviar
• ¡Viva Latino!
• Baila Reggaeton
• Songs to Sing in the Car

Genres That Grew the Most in 2018

• EMO Rap
• Lo-fi Beats
• Deep Talent Show
• Ringtone
• Brega Funk