The most streamed artist in 2025 (globally) was Bad Bunny on Spotify.

Quick Scoop: 2025’s streaming king

On Spotify’s year-end 2025 ranking (Spotify Wrapped), Bad Bunny took the global #1 spot as the most-streamed artist of the year, with about 19.8 billion streams. This marked his fourth time finishing a year at #1 on Spotify’s global annual list (after 2020, 2021, and 2022), which is a record.

Right behind him were:

  • Taylor Swift at #2.
  • The Weeknd at #3.
  • Drake at #4.
  • Billie Eilish at #5.

Other platforms did tell a slightly different story: Apple Music and Amazon Music named Drake their most-streamed artist of 2025 on those services, but that is platform-specific, not global across all streaming.

Platform breakdown (Spotify vs Apple vs Amazon)

Here’s how the “who was the most streamed artist in 2025” question shakes out across major platforms:

html

<table>
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th>Platform / Scope</th>
      <th>Most-streamed artist in 2025</th>
      <th>Notes</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>Spotify – Global, year-end 2025</td>
      <td>Bad Bunny [web:1][web:3][web:7]</td>
      <td>~19.8 billion streams, #1 on Spotify Wrapped 2025 globally. [web:1][web:3]</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Apple Music – 2025</td>
      <td>Drake [web:8][web:10]</td>
      <td>Named Apple Music’s most-streamed artist of 2025. [web:8][web:10]</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Amazon Music – 2025</td>
      <td>Drake [web:8]</td>
      <td>Amazon Music also highlighted Drake as its top-streamed artist in 2025. [web:8]</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Spotify – all-time, as of late 2025</td>
      <td>Taylor Swift [web:5]</td>
      <td>Most-streamed artist ever on Spotify (cumulative), but not #1 for just the year 2025. [web:5]</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

So if someone on a forum asks “who was the most streamed artist in 2025,” the precise answer depends on what they mean:

  • On Spotify for the year 2025: Bad Bunny.
  • On Apple Music (and Amazon Music) in 2025: Drake.
  • Most-streamed artist ever on Spotify up to 2025: Taylor Swift.

Why this became a trending topic

Fans often mix up:

  • “Most-streamed this year on one platform” vs
  • “Most-streamed overall, across time” vs
  • “Most-streamed on my preferred app.”

That is why you see:

  • Swifties pointing out that Taylor Swift is the most-streamed artist ever on Spotify by cumulative plays.
  • Latin music fans celebrating that Bad Bunny reclaimed the yearly global Spotify crown in 2025 after Taylor Swift’s back-to-back wins in 2023 and 2024.
  • Hip-hop fans highlighting that Drake still dominates Apple Music and Amazon Music’s 2025 tallies.

In December 2025 and early 2026, this turned into a classic fanbase debate around who “really” owned 2025, especially as streaming keeps shaping charts and global pop culture.

TL;DR: For the question “who was the most streamed artist in 2025,” the widely cited answer is Bad Bunny on Spotify’s global 2025 ranking , while Drake led 2025 on Apple Music and Amazon Music, and Taylor Swift held the all-time Spotify crown.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.