The biggest artists, albums, books and podcasts of 2025

Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny, Alex Warren and K-Pop Demon Hunters dominate Spotify's music charts, while Steven Bartlett lords it over the podcasts. Roisin O’Connor reports

- Roisin O’Connor

Spotify has unveiled its annual Wrapped feature, giving its users insights into their listening habits over the past year.

The streaming service has also shared its statistics for the biggest artists, albums, songs, podcasts and audiobooks over the past 12 months.

Puerto Rico’s Latin trap megastar Bad Bunny returned to claim his crown as Spotify’s most popular global artist for the fourth time, having previously held the title in 2020, 2021 and 2022. He also had the world’s most listened-to album with his latest release, Debí Tirar Más Fotos.

The news comes ahead of his headline performance at the 2026 Super Bowl halftime show, and after he scooped several nominations for next year’s Grammys.

Meanwhile, the biggest song of the year was actually released in 2024: Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’s monster hit “Die With a Smile”, which accrued more than 1.7 billion streams in 2025 alone.

Alex Warren’s inescapable single “Ordinary” was the most-streamed song of the year in the UK, and Taylor Swift took the top spot for the third consecutive year as the UK’s most popular artist.

Sabrina Carpenter claimed the biggest album on Spotify in the UK with her seventh studio album, Short n’ Sweet, another Grammy contender for prizes including album of the year. Women once again dominated the top UK albums: just three out of 10 records were by male artists or an ensemble cast of singers.

Along with the biggest music of the year, Spotify shared its most successful podcasts, topped globally for the sixth year running by The Joe Rogan Experience.