The world’s most streamed artists on YouTube

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It’s 45 years since the Daily Mirror revealed a “network of housewives” purchasing multiple copies of the same single from record stores to skew the official pop charts.

The record enterprises didn’t expect these conspiratorial customers to get their artists to number one (which would cost a fortune). The purpose was only to get songs high enough into the charts to generate a buzz. And then genuine record customers would do the rest.

Nobody knows if these ladies listened to the audio recordings. They presumably didn’t listen to multiple copies of the same one. But nowadays, we know not just which records are purchased but which ones are really heard, thanks to streaming counts on the likes of YouTube and Spotify.

In 2022, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) acknowledged that YouTube is now one of the “pillars in people’s music discovery.” And they created a framework for the official pop charts worldwide to include YouTube plays in their estimates.

So which music — new and old — are the listenerships from country to country discovering? And then sticking on replay, free from the risk of wearing out the record?

Liberty Games delved deep into YouTube’s geographic streaming data to discover which songs and artists are most heard.

Key Findings

• Bollywood ‘playback singer’ Alka Yagnik is the most listened artist worldwide, with 14.8 billion YouTube streams.
• Songs from the Indian movie Pushpa: The Rise account for the three most listened songs worldwide, with a combined 3.1 billion streams.
• Indian music aside, Me Porto Bonito by Bad Bunny & Chencho Corleone has been the world’s most listened-to song over the past year.
• 2Pac is the world’s most streamed hip-hop artist, with more than twice the streams of the second-placed Notorious B.I.G.

The most listened-to artist in every country

Online streaming platforms are now the easiest way to listen to your favorite music, and YouTube is one of the most popular ones, with music making up 25% of global watch time on the platform.

By analyzing the last 12 months of YouTube music charts, we’ve mapped the most listened-to artists in 151 countries worldwide and ranked the artists with the most listens in 2022, with Bollywood legend Alka Yagnik taking the crown overall with 14.8 billion listens.

The most listened-to song in every country

Over the last 12 months, the song Saami Saami from the Bollywood film Pushpa: The Rise has been listened to 1.55 billion times on YouTube – more than any other song. In eight countries, including the U.S., another cinematic song played the most on YouTube: We Don’t Talk About Bruno from Disney’s smash-hit movie Encanto.

The Most Listened-to Classical Composer in Every Country

Classical music has gone modern, with one Statista poll finding that video streaming services are one of the most popular ways classical music fans listen to their favorite music. Data reveals that Frederic Chopin’s music was listened to 50.4 million times over the last 12 months – more than any other classical music artist. Meanwhile, Mozart was the most listened-to artist in the majority (63) of countries.

The most listened-to classic rock artist in every country

Over the last 12 months on YouTube, Queen was the most listened-to classic rock artist in 63 countries – more than any other artist in the genre – and counted 1.86 billion listens in total. The We Will Rock You group has racked up more listens than some of the most iconic bands of the genre, including the Beatles (with 1.01 billion listens), Nirvana (1.05 billion), and the Rolling Stones (571 million).

The Most Listened-to Old-School Hip-Hop Artist in Every Country

In the majority (89) of countries, rap legend 2Pac was the most listened-to old-school hip-hop artist over the last 12 months. In total, the singer’s YouTube discography has racked up a staggering 1.4 billion listens. The Ghetto Gospel singer was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame alongside the Notorious B.I.G., whose music was listened to 647 million times on YouTube in 2022.

The most Listened-to Old-School Country Artist in Every Country

Country music may be quintessentially American, but our data reveals its influence worldwide. Over the last 12 months, Alan Jackson was the most listened-to old-school country artist on YouTube, racking up a massive 412 million listens in total. Meanwhile, the late Kenny Rogers is the most listened-to country artist in 39 countries. In particular, Rogers’ enduring popularity in Jamaica was highlighted by Complex magazine after the star’s passing in 2020.

Methodology

To find the most listened-to artist in each country in 2022, Liberty Games located each country’s page on the YouTube Video Music Charts and isolated the top artist and country ranked by the number of views in the last 12 months.

The most listened-to song in each country in 2022 was similarly found by filtering for the last 12 months on each country’s page on the YouTube Video Music Charts.

To find the most listened-to artist of each genre in each country, the team first compiled a seed list of the most popular old-school artists in the rock, hip-hop, classical, and country music genres. Each artist on the seed list was then searched on the YouTube Video Music Charts to find their individual page, e.g., for 2Pac. Then we set the time frame filter for “12 months” and the location filter for “global.” Liberty Games could then find view counts for that artist in each country.

Finally, Liberty Games ranked the top 10 global songs and artists by combining views across countries for top songs and by using an artist’s total view count for the past 12 months, as listed on their YouTube Charts page.

It should be noted that view counts for top songs on YouTube (those listed on the country pages on YouTube Charts are sometimes smaller than view counts on YouTube Charts. More information on how views are calculated can be found on the Music Charts and Insights page. The data was collected between the 24th and 28th of October, 2022.