Top 20 most streamed artistes of all time on Spotify

Music streaming has reshaped the global industry, turning platforms like Spotify into the ultimate measure of an artiste’s reach and influence.

20 years ago, a small Swedish start-up changed the way the world hears music forever.

To celebrate two decades of digital dominance, Spotify pulled back the curtain on Thursday, April 23, 2026, to reveal the most-streamed artists in its star-studded history.

The data provides a fascinating who’s who of the 21st-century music industry, cementing the status of household names like Drake, Taylor Swift, and The Weeknd.

While the top tier is packed with the usual suspects, the list also serves as a victory lap for legacy acts who have successfully conquered the transition from physical records to the thumb-swipe age.

The most streamed artistes

The following list represents the artistes who have accumulated the highest number of plays since Spotify’s launch in 2006:

1. Drake

2. Taylor Swift

3. Bad Bunny

4. The Weeknd

5. Ed Sheeran

6. Justin Bieber

7. Ariana Grande

8. Eminem

9. Kanye West

10. Post Malone

11. Rihanna

12. J Balvin

13. Billie Eilish

14. Coldplay

15. Imagine Dragons

16. Bruno Mars

17. Dua Lipa

18. BTS

19. Travis Scott

20. Khalid