The Top Songs, Artists, Playlists, and Podcasts of 2019—and the Last Decade

As 2019 draws to a close, so too does a stellar year of streaming on Spotify. You may be reflecting back on the past 12 months, thinking about your own music discoveries and the songs you repeated over, and over, and over. (You’ll be able to check them out on your personal Wrapped cards later this week). We’re doing the same—but for the entire world.

We dove into the newcomers, showstoppers, and top performers who united the globe with music and podcasts this year. And ahead of the brand-new decade, we also looked back on the last 10 years in music to reveal who dominated global listening.

So, what did the world listen to in 2019?

This year, Post Malone claimed the spot of most-streamed artist with over 6.5 billion streams from fans around the globe. It’s the rapper-singer-songwriter’s first time topping Spotify’s Wrapped list, and he did it just 12 weeks after dropping his album Hollywood’s Bleeding (which also happens to be the second most-streamed album globally this year). His collaboration with Swae Lee on “Sunflower” from Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse rounded out the top three most-streamed songs of the year, which gives the artist a spot in each of our three major music categories (top artists, top songs, and top albums).

The second-most-streamed artist of the year is 17-year-old singer-songwriter and first time Grammy nominee Billie Eilish, who by now, definitely deserves that crown. In this year alone, she dropped her album WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? and surpassed 6 billion streams. The album has proven to be the top-streamed release of 2019, marking a milestone—Billie is the first female artist to have her album top the Wrapped most-streamed album category. Her dark staccato hit “bad guy” also ranks as the second-most-streamed song of the year.

Finally, Ariana Grande released her immensely popular album thank u, next in February, propelling her to number three on Spotify’s list of most-streamed-artists globally. Her song “7 rings” was also in the top five most streamed this year, giving Ariana a strong two years in the top 10 of Spotify’s Wrapped list. Listeners also showed Taylor Swift lots of love, making her the year’s third top-streamed female artist after her album Lover generated popular tracks like “ME!” and “You Need to Calm Down.”

When it comes to the most-streamed female artist of the decade, Ariana once again takes the cake. Only tears of joy left to cry for this one. (And the top male artist? Last year’s Scorpion king, Drake.)

The year’s top song comes from the duo that took the Northern Hemisphere’s summer by storm: “Señorita” by Shawn Mendes and Camilla Cabello saw more than 1 billion streams. After “Señorita,” “bad guy,” “Sunflower,” and “7 rings,” the year’s fifth-most-streamed track came from Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus. They took their horse all the way to the front with “Old Town Road – Remix.”   

This year was a big one for podcast growth on Spotify. There are now more than 500,000 podcast titles available, and our podcast audience has grown by more than 50% since the start of the year. We’ve also seen a 39% increase in podcast hours consumed by listeners quarter over quarter. People are clearly loving podcasts, tuning in the most to Spotify Original The Joe Budden Podcast with Rory and Mal, followed by My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark and Germany’s Gemischtes Hack. The most-streamed podcast genre of 2019 was comedy, showing that laughter is truly universal.  

Take a look at some of the world’s top songs, artists, genres, and trends:

Can’t get enough of the chart toppers? Check out our lists of the top artists, songs, albums, groups, podcasts, and more below—and don’t forget to tune in later this week to the Wrapped microsite to see your personal favorites and receive a playlist based on your tastes. Plus, we’ve also created the ultimate Playlist of the Decade: the biggest songs of the past 10 years according to fan streaming.

So without further ado …

Spotify’s Global Top Lists 2019:

Most-Streamed Artists

1. Post Malone
2. Billie Eilish
3. Ariana Grande
4. Ed Sheeran
5. Bad Bunny

 Most-Streamed Female Artists

1. Billie Eilish
2. Ariana Grande
3. Taylor Swift
4. Camila Cabello
5. Halsey

Most-Streamed Male Artists

1. Post Malone
2. Ed Sheeran
3. Bad Bunny
4. Khalid
5. J Balvin

Most-Streamed Tracks 

1. “Señorita” – Camila Cabello, Shawn Mendes
2. “bad guy” – Billie Eilish
3. “Sunflower” – Post Malone, Swae Lee
4. “7 Rings” – Ariana Grande
5. “Old Town Road – Remix” – Lil Nas X, Billy Ray Cyrus

Most-Streamed Albums 

1. WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? – Billie Eilish
2. Hollywood’s Bleeding – Post Malone
3. thank u, next – Ariana Grande
4. No.6 Collaborations Project – Ed Sheeran
5. Shawn Mendes – Shawn Mendes

Most-Streamed Podcasts

1. The Joe Budden Podcast with Rory & Mal
2. My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
3. Gemischtes Hack
4. Fest & Flauschig
5. The Misfits Podcast

Most-Streamed Spotify Original Podcasts

1. The Joe Budden Podcast with Rory & Mal
2. Gemischtes Hack
3. Fest & Flauschig
4. Serial Killers
5. Herrengedeck – Der Podcast

“A Decade Wrapped” Spotify’s Top Lists 2010–2019

Most-Streamed Artists of the Decade (Global)

1. Drake
2. Ed Sheeran
3. Post Malone
4. Ariana Grande
5. Eminem

Most-Streamed Female Artists of the Decade (Global)

1. Ariana Grande
2. Rihanna
3. Taylor Swift
4. Sia
5. Beyoncé

Most-Streamed Male Artists of the Decade (Global)

1. Drake
2. Ed Sheeran
3. Post Malone
4. Eminem
5. The Weeknd

Most-Streamed Tracks of the Decade (Global)

1. “Shape of You” – Ed Sheeran
2. “One Dance”  – Drake, Kyla, WizKid
3. “rockstar (feat. 21 Savage)” – 21 Savage, Post Malone
4. “Closer” – Halsey, The Chainsmokers
5. “Thinking out Loud” – Ed Sheeran

Click here to download the infographic.