Did you know that Spotify displays public monthly listener counts for all of its artists? I learned this yesterday in a tweet exchange and was fascinated by the news. How have I missed this? It made me wonder what are the most listened to hard rock and heavy metal bands on the service?
First off, look at how insane streaming numbers are for mainstream pop artists:
Spotify's Most monthly listeners
1) Ed Sheeran – 69.15 million
2) Shawn Mendes – 55.96m
3) Camila Cabello – 54.99m
4) J Balvin – 54.58m
5) Khalid – 54.56m
6) Justin Bieber –52.05m
7) Billie Eilish –50.02m
8) Post Malone –48.54m
9) Lil Nas X – 48.37m
10) Daddy Yankee – 46.70m pic.twitter.com/n6EhKtPYrO— Eric Alper ? (@ThatEricAlper) July 18, 2019
It's easy to see why they command the majority of the Spotify royalties, which only really start adding up when you hit these megamillion streams.
Of course, if you think about it, the results skew a bit towards artists with new releases, since more people are likely to check stream new stuff than go back and jam the classics, but some of the results here prove that if you're a big enough band, that doesn't quite matter. Thankfully, I am not the only one who pondered this as MetalSucks' Vince Neilstein went ahead and did the legwork to tally up artists and came back with this ranking. If we missed an artist, let us know in the comments and we'll update this.
- Queen: 33 million
- Halestorm: 17.3 million
- AC/DC: 17.16 million
- Guns N’ Roses: 16.82 million
- Linkin Park: 16.64 million
- Nirvana: 13.5 million
- Metallica: 13.38 million
- Aerosmith: 13.2 million
- Led Zeppelin: 13.2 million
- Foo Fighters: 10.7 million
- Pearl Jam: 8.9 million
- Van Halen: 8.5 million
- System of A Down: 8.13 million
- Kiss: 7.68 million
- Scorpions: 7.6 million
- Disturbed: 7.34 million
- Papa Roach: 7.3 million
- A Day to Remember: 6.56 million
- Black Sabbath: 6.46 million
- Slipknot: 6.35 million
- Rage Against The Machine: 6.2 million
- Rammstein 6.06 million
- Limp Bizkit: 5.96 million
- Motley Crue: 5.8 million
- Three Days Grace: 5.5 million
- Deep Purple: 5.4 million
- Evanesence: 5.3 million
- Ozzy Osbourne: 5.26 million
- Soundgarden: 5.03 million
- Def Leppard: 4.93 million
- Korn: 4.93 million
- Rise Against: 4.9 million
- Avenged Sevenfold: 4.79 million
- Whitesnake: 4.76 million
- Iron Maiden: 4.7 million
- Audioslave: 4.58 million
- Five Finger Death Punch: 4.58 million
- Bring Me the Horizon: 4.52 million
- Queens of the Stoneage: 4.5 million
- Shinedown: 4.31 million
- Alice in Chains: 4.30 million
- Skillet: 4.3 million
- Seether: 4.1 million
- Breaking Benjamin: 4.07 million
- Marilyn Manson: 3.96 million
- Thin Lizzy: 3.8 million
- Blue Oyster Cult: 3.7 million
- Stone Sour: 3.69 million
- Volbeat: 3.56 million
- Godsmack: 3.3 million
- Motorhead: 3.1 million
- Poison: 3.1 million
- Twisted Sister: 3.1 million
- Pantera: 3.03 million
- Bullet For My Valentine: 3 million
- Theory of a Deadman: 2.9 million
- Puddle Of Mudd: 2.8 million
- Quiet Riot: 2.8 million
- Judas Priest: 2.75 million
- Greta Van Fleet: 2.7 million
- Skid Row: 2.5 million
- Megadeth: 2.43 million
- Faith No More: 2.41 million
- I Prevail: 2.2 million
- Bad Wolves: 2.18 million
- Deftones: 2.11 million
- Drowning Pool: 2.1 million
- Dio: 1.95 million
- Killswitch Engage: 1.95 million
- Rob Zombie: 1.92 million
- Asking Alexandria: 1.9 million
- Trivium: 1.74 million
- Warrant: 1.74 million
- Our Last Night: 1.7 million
- Ghost: 1.69 million
- Sabaton: 1.69 million
- Slayer: 1.68 million
- Alter Bridge: 1.6 million
- In Flames: 1.59 million
- Atreyu: 1.5 million
- Pop Evil: 1.5 million
- Slash: 1.5 million
- Mudvayne: 1.4 million
- The Cult: 1.3 million
- All That Remains: 1.28 million
- In This Moment: 1.27 million
- Nightwish: 1.27 million
- Lamb of God: 1.26 million
- Within Temptation: 1.24 million
- Parkway Drive: 1.18 million
- Machine Head: 1.15 million
- Dragonforce: 1.14 million
- Amon Amarth: 1.11 million
- Dope: 1.1 million
- Dream Theater: 1.1 million
- Motionless in White: 1.1 million
- Nothing More: 1.1 million
- The Pretty Reckless: 1.1 million
- Sevendust: 1.05 million
- RATT: 1 million
- Static-X: 1 million
- Anthrax: 959,000
- Danzig: 951,000
- Coheed and Cambria: 931,000
- Helloween: 924,000
- Adelitas Way: 912,000
- HELLYEAH: 903,000
- Gojira: 889,000
- Black Stone Cherry: 873,000
- Tesla: 853,000
- Amaranthe: 849,000
- Arch Enemy: 843,000
- Soil: 843,000
- White Zombie: 843,000
- Misfits: 827,000
- Mastodon: 819,000
- As I Lay Dying: 798,000
- Sepultura: 796,000
- Architects: 792,000
- The Amity Affliction: 790,000
- Accept: 778,000
- Airbourne: 753,000
- Queenseryche: 749,000
- Children of Bodom: 714,000
- Wage War: 678,000
- Hammerfall: 672,000
- Riot: 651,000
- Insane Clown Posse: 622,000
- August Burns Red: 612,000
- Alestorm: 607,000
- Skindred: 603,000
- Alestorm: 597,000
- Living Colour: 595,000
- Uriah Heep: 593,000
- Manowar: 588,000
- Clutch: 586,000
- Opeth: 582,000
- Steel Panther: 582,000
- Babymetal: 571,000
- Fear Factory: 570,000
- Hatebreed: 563,000
- Bury Tomorrow: 541,000
- Cold 530,000
- Sonata Arctica: 497,000
- Testament: 484,000
- Eluveitie: 467,000
- Thy Art is Murder: 464,000
- Fozzy: 450,000
- Lacuna Coil: 446,000
- Northlane: 444,000
- Suicidal Tendencies: 443,000
- Blind Guardian: 440,000
- Meshuggah: 421,000
- Death: 412,000
- Demon Hunter: 409,000
- Epica: 408,000
- Korpiklaani: 405,000
- Avantasia: 404,000
- Soilwork: 398,000
- Whitechapel: 397,000
- Attila: 391,000
- Type O Negative: 390,000
- Suicide Silence: 388,000
- After The Burial: 386,000
- Periphery: 386,000
- Soulfly: 384,000
- Polyphia: 367,000
- Chon: 360,000
- Dethklok: 358,000
- The Devil Wears Prada: 353,000
- Avatar: 347,000
- Light the Torch: 339,000
- Refused: 334,000
- Cradle of Filth: 331,000
- Turisas: 325,000
- Behemoth: 317,000
- Bad Omens: 316,000
- Kamelot: 312,000
- Cannibal Corpse: 311,000
- Dimmu Borgir: 294,000
- Krokus: 293,000
- Equilibrium: 284,000
- New Years Day: 282,000
- Chelsea Grin: 278,000
- Kreator: 275,000
- The Ghost Inside: 271,000
- Monster Magnet: 267,000
- Jinjer: 264,000
- Corrosion of Conformity: 258,000
- Animals As Leaders: 257,000
- Baroness: 252,000
- Born of Osiris: 248,000
- Red Fang: 248,000
- KMFDM: 242,000
- Spineshank: 242,000
- Exodus: 238,000
- Emmure: 234,000
- Sonic Syndicate: 233,000
- Dark Tranquility: 227,000
- Delain: 226,000
- Veil of Maya: 226,000
- Stick To Your Guns: 224,000
- Ensiferum: 223,000
- Dirty Honey: 213,000
- 3Teeth: 209,000
- Otep: 206,000
- Tesseract: 205,000
- Mercyful Fate: 204,000
- Turmion Kätilöt: 200,000
- Every Time I Die: 199,000
- Overkill: 196,000
- Sleep: 190,000
- Venom: 189,000
- Devin Townsend: 188,000
- Rhapsody of Fire: 187,000
- King Diamond: 184,000
- Pain: 184,000
- The Black Dahlia Murder: 184,000
- Caliban: 183,000
- The Contortionist: 183,000
- Plini: 181,000
- Between the Buried and Me: 179,000
- Elvenking: 173,000
- Heaven Shall Burn: 172,000
- At the Gates: 169,000
- The Browning: 167,000
- Carnifex: 164,000
- Oh, Sleeper: 158,000
- Gamma Ray: 147,000
- Deicide: 146,000
- Chimaira: 141,000
- Rotting Christ: 139,000
- Alien Weaponry: 136,000
- Death Angel: 135,000
- Diamond Head: 134,000
- Dying Fetus: 132,000
- Satyricon: 132,000
- Burzum: 128,000
- Mayhem: 128,000
- The Unguided: 128,000
- Darkthrone: 125,000
- Finntroll: 125,000
- Converge: 123,000
- Finntroll: 123,000
- Kvelertak: 123,000
- Municipal Waste: 123,000
- Carcass: 121,000
- Unearth: 121,000
- Metal Church: 119,000
- Code Orange: 118,000
- If These Trees Could Talk: 118,000
- Bloodbath: 115,000
- Protest The Hero: 114,000
- Torche: 114,000
- High on Fire: 113,000
- Karnivool: 113,000
- Shadows Fall: 113,000
- The Acacia Strain: 112,000
- Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators: 111,000
- Myrkur: 109,000
- Deafheaven: 107,000
- Fleshgod Apocalypse: 101,000
- Gwar: 98,000
- Wintersun: 96,000
- Celtic Frost: 94,000
- Scar Symmetry: 94,000
- Within the Ruins: 91,000
- Fit For An Autopsy: 88,000
- Darkest Hour: 87,000
- Emperor: 85,000
- The Agonist: 82,000
- Decapitated: 81,000
- Allegaeon: 80,000
- Kobra & the Lotus 77,000
- Cult of Luna: 74,000
- Dark Funeral: 73,000
- Havok: 73,000
- Cellar Darling: 69,000
- Crobot: 69,000
- Bloodywood: 68,000
- Revocation: 67,000
- Marduk: 66,000
- The Faceless: 66,000
- Cattle Decapitation: 64,000
- Isis: 64,000
- Neurosis: 63,000
- Crowbar: 61,000
- Armored Saint: 59,000
- Rivers of Nihil: 57,000
- Nuclear Assault: 51,000
- Yob: 51,000
- Vein: 50,000
- Warbringer: 47,000
- The Warning: 38,000
- Green Lung: 34,000
- Nachtblut: 28,000
- Sanctuary: 18,000
- Uneven Structure: 14,000
- Evil Invaders 9,000
Are you surprised with any of the rankings here? If so, get to listening!
Let us know if any bands were missed in this list and we'll add them in.
