The Most-Consumed Songs of 2018

By Variety Staff

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Call him Drake the dominator. The superstar rapper claimed four of the top 30 most popular songs in a 2018 year-to-date chart created for Variety by BuzzAngle Music, measuring multiple forms of consumption, including audio streams and song sales, to derive a project unit tally. No. 1 on the Hitmakers ranking is ’s “God’s Plan,” kicking off a list dominated even more thoroughly than last year by hip-hop. Of this year’s top 30 songs, only 10 are not of the genre; the highest-ranking single outside of hip-hop is Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect,” at No. 6. (Last year, Sheeran took the top spot with “Shape of You.”) A pure sales chart would tell a slightly less imbalanced story, and Drake’s singular multiplicity of hits this year did tip the scale a bit. But as BuzzAngle tells — or foretells — it, music’s most active consumers are increasingly looking at rock, country, R&B and even pop hits as flavors they can sprinkle into an otherwise primarily hip-hop stew.