NEW YORK – It’s time to unpack Spotify Wrapped. And it should come as no surprise that Taylor Swift was named the most played artist for the second year in a row.

On Wednesday, the streaming giant presented its annual overview of individual listening trends as well as trends from around the world. Users can now access their top artists, songs, genres, albums and podcasts and find out which artists had the most successful year on the platform.

With more than 26.6 billion streams, Swift was the most streamed artist worldwide in 2024. She is followed by The Weeknd, Bad Bunny, Drake and Billie Eilish, in that order.

In the USA, the list looks similar: Swift is at the top, followed by Drake, Zach Bryan, Morgan Wallen and Kanye West.

Last year, Swift dethroned Puerto Rican reggaetón star Bad Bunny to take the global top spot. As of 2020, he held the coveted title for three years in a row.

Swift also took home the title of most-streamed album of 2024 with “The Tortured Poets Department.” It is followed by Eilish’s “Hit Me Hard and Soft,” Sabrina Carpenter’s “Short n’ Sweet,” Karol G’s “Mañana Será Bonito” and Ariana Grande’s ” Eternal Sunshine.”

All of these tracks are new for 2024, with the exception of Karol G’s album, which was released early last year.

In the U.S., there are only slight differences: Swift’s album is still at the top, followed by Wallen’s “One Thing At A Time,” released last year. Then it’s Carpenter, Noah Kahan’s “Stick Season” and Chappell Roan’s “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess,” also coming in 2023.

Carpenter leads the most streamed songs in both the U.S. and worldwide this year with her summer hit “Espresso.” Over 1.6 billion streams were generated.

She is followed worldwide by “Beautiful Things” by Benson Boones, “Birds of a Feather” by Eilish, “Gata Only” by FloyyMenor and Cris MJ and “Lose Control” by Teddy Swims.

And in the US, Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us”, Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”, Post Malone and Morgan Wallen’s “I Had Some Help” and Tommy Richman’s “Million Dollar Baby” follow.

There are some new features coming to Spotify Wrapped this year. These include a new data story called “Your Music Evolution,” which documents three different music phases for each user, and a personalized playlist. The individualized “Your Top Artist” function has also changed slightly and now includes “Longest Listening Streak” as well as the well-known “Top Listeners”.

That the world’s biggest artists took top spots on Spotify Wrapped should come as no surprise – they’re featured prominently across the streaming service, including in its highly influential playlists, and also boast loyal, engaged fan bases. For independent artists who might appear on a single listener’s Wrapped, it would take billions of streams to reach a top spot on the global list.

Streaming now accounts for the majority of money generated by the music industry – a whopping 84% in the United States, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, and a 2024 report from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry 67.3% worldwide, which tracks global sales.

Spotify is the largest platform of all – accounting for about 31% of the total market share – with a reported 626 million users and 246 million subscribers in over 180 markets.