The 25 Most-Streamed Songs on Spotify (as of July 2021)

i think this is "sunflower" by some distance. "new rules" and "blinding lights" follow.

the only one i'm pretty sure i've never heard is the james arthur song

bad guy is the only song here i really like, but the camila cabello and dua lipa tracks are decent. sunflower is ok i guess. the rest though - there are worse drake and bieber tracks but still. there are some real atrocities here

i'd never heard the gaga song before, unimpressed by the music and message, if it's representative of the movie it sounds extremely not good. i've never knowingly heard xxxtentacion, i'm happy to keep it that way

"Sunflower" or "bad guy" are the only ones I could feel good about voting for.

Is this where Taylor's holding back from streaming on Spotify hurts her numbers a little? Surprised she doesn't have any song on here.

perhaps - she's not in the top 100 at all. though she had 2 weeks at no 1 with LWYMMD and 1 with cardigan

top 50 would have given us Bohemian Rhapsody, XO Tour Llif3 and HUMBLE. but also Th-Th-Thunder and the fucking blurryface song

"New Rules." Also considered "Bad Guy" and "Sunflower."

the 10 I can fuck with to a larger or lesser extent:
1. Fucking Ed Sheeran - Shape of you (my way in was the Legendury Beatz remix)
2. The Weeknd - Blinding Lights
5. Drake ft. Wizkid & Kyla - One Dance
8. Post Malone & Swae Lee - Sunflower
10. Billie Eilish - Bad Guy (good I guess, tho I never loved it, unlike many of her other tracks)
13. Drake - God's Plan
20. The Weeknd ft. Daft Punk - Starboy
23. Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper - Shallow (the pathos and the melody are undeniable)
24. Dua Lipa - New Rules (the one of these I loved most intensely when it was around)
25. Dua Lipa - Don't Start Now

Bonus 11: 7. Lewis Capaldi - Someone You Loved (corny as fuck, but, much as I want to hate it, also undeniable)

voted "One Dance", because I mean, it's Wizkid on a global number one hit, even if he's got/is featured on many many dozens of better songs, and I went for a different track in the Acclaimed Tracks of 2016 poll - oh yeah, it's a nifty little banger, that too

Don’t Start Now. But yeah, what a grim list

Don’t Start Now. But yeah, what a grim list

Don’t Start Now. But yeah, what a grim list

But yeah, what a grim list

maybe i'm judging the gaga/cooper too harshly bc the whole trashy pop star finally becomes authentic by going rock/country narrative (if that's what it is, maybe i'm wrong) bothers me too much

never watched the movie - like “Someone Like You” “Shallow” is one the few recent-ish smash hits that crept up on me thru exposure in the wild/osmosis

7. Lewis Capaldi - Someone You Loved

what is this

in a truly shocking development that is a complete surprise to no one: i hate every last song on here. but looking at this thread was worth it for this

1. Fucking Ed Sheeran

lol

oops, I was talking about “Someone You Loved” in my above post as well, not “Someone Like You”

I voted for "Señorita" bc I had a nice experience teaching it one time.

only song I know here by name is “blinding lights” which I like A LOT

oh wait I know bad guy. and the Coldplay one. the Coldplay one is a real tearjerker

"dance monkey" being one of the biggest streaming hits of its era will never not be funny to me

overall this list has fewer good songs than i would have guessed. my picks:

1. "bad guy"
2. "closer"
3. "one dance"

and before ppl boo and hiss at me for the second one, yes i rly do think it's a great song, formulaic and basic as it is -- basically the swan song for that style of beige midtempo edm ballad that was popular for a few years leading up to then, and honestly about as good a send-off as that style could have ever mustered. (unfortunately the white/pop segment of the industry is still, years later, routinely trying to push songs like this up the airplay charts no matter how many times the general public has rejected them. the only edm singles that still do well in the us now are those w/ a clear hip-hop influence + like one marshmello track every year or two.)

i h8 lewis capaldi and his contrived social media self-deprecation but i will also admit to thinking "someone you loved" was pretty good. also enjoy "god's plan" "sunflower" and the ones by weeknd and lipa

the chainsmoker/coldplay one has truly horrific lyrics tho that didn't stop it from being a huge hit. basically a 'new jersey' of pop singles tho as they (chainsmokers) began flopping miserably into perpetuity afterward

you know who was actually good from this generally dull era of edm hits? dj snake -- unfortunately not on this list

Can confirm via spending time with 9 and 10 year olds while coaching baseball that "Dance Monkey" is still huge with that particular demographic.

Can confirm via spending time with an 11 year old throughout lockdown that "Dance Monkey" and "Bad Guy" can never lose their allure (to 11 year old ears).

Huh, "Dance Monkey" is one of only a couple of songs on the list that I don't recognize (maybe I would if I heard it).

i can't stand that synth sound from the chorus of "closer."

i'm also surprised that dj snake couldn't sneak one on this list. wasn't major lazer's "lean on" the top-played spotify song for a while?

xp to dyl i guess

Thank god I only know 4 of these

I first heard "Dance Monkey" the way people in their mid-30s hear a lot of modern pop - screamed at the top of my preschooler's lungs. I was stunned to find it was an actual hit song - I thought it was one of those kids videos. Even more surprised to see the video which had a very mid-00's Jackass vibe to it.

sunflower

#25

#10 runner up

boring and voting "Bad Guy."

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

lol whoops, i'm only just realizing now that i posted that three times. i think i kept getting error messages when i tried to post it so i kept hitting back and posting it again...

but yeah, what a grim list

guess I already voted for Starboy, "you have already voted in this poll and cannot vote again"

Not good! Going Dua Lipa over Eilish and Tones and I.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Most of these songs are perfectly fine. Shut up, you bitter old cranks.

show your work

Best song here is Fucking Ed Sheeran but I guess I didn't vote

I was wondering about the absence of “Despacito”, turns out the original version and the Bieber remix cancelled each other out for this top 25, but their combined streams would make it the runner-up, right behind “Shape Of You”

Is this global or US only?

surprised "Shallow" didn't get a single vote, it's on the same level as any of the songs that got less than 10 votes

global:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-streamed_songs_on_Spotify

xp

this list is cheugy

i'm guessing remix-splitting also affected "old town road" or idk maybe it cooled off significantly after the sensation surrounding it abated

xp I agree about the synth sound in "closer" but it's too bad because I think the chorus has surprisingly good lyrics.

“Old Town Road” would be number 9 or thereabouts if you combined the different versions