Ed Sheeran Replaces Drake as Most Streamed Artist of the Year On Spotify

Ed Sheeran, enemy of TV writer Kara Brown, has surpassed Drake, our friend, on Spotify, becoming the most-streamed artist of 2017 with 6.3 billion plays overall. WTF?

Spotify shared the numbers and there’s no denying it: Ed Sheeran’s album ÷ (Divide) 3.1 billion times, and his song “Shape of You” is the most streamed track of all time, with 1.4 billion streams.

“Ed Sheeran absolutely dominated this year with the release of his record-breaking album, Divide,” said Stefan Blom, Spotify’s Chief Content Officer. “There is no doubt that 2017 was The Year of Ed Sheeran, and we are thrilled that so many millions of music fans have discovered, listened to, and shared his music on Spotify. Congratulations to Ed on an amazing achievement.”

Calling it the “year of Ed Sheeran” really explains a lot about 2017. I do notice that they don’t mention that Ed Sheeran sneaks onto just about every Spotify playlist in existence. I often find myself thinking, “What is this painful ear worm?” only to click over and realize they got me again. Stacking the deck, aren’t we Spotify?

Drake held the title in both 2015 and 2016, and he comes up second to Sheeran now, per the list of most streamed artists:

1. Ed Sheeran
2. Drake
3. The Weeknd
4. Kendrick Lamar
5. The Chainsmokers

There is some good news in all this! The most streamed woman artist of the year was Rihanna… followed by Taylor Swift. We’ll see what extremes 2018 pushes us to.