Taylor Swift Retains Crown of World's No. 1 Recording Artist

2024 was yet another year of superlatives for Taylor Swift: she was the most-streamed artist in the world on Spotify and Apple Music, had the best-selling album in the United States by far and her “Eras Tour” became the first ever to gross more than $2 billion. To top it all off, IFPI, the governing body of the global music industry, announced that Swift was also the biggest-selling recording artist in the world last year, making her the first artist to win the award for a fifth time.

“We are immensely proud to award the IFPI Global Recording Artist of the Year Award to Taylor Swift for the fifth time, as she continues to redefine the limits of global success," Victoria Oakley, CEO of IFPI, said in a statement. "This has been a huge year for Taylor, and it has been incredible to see the extent to which fans all over the world are connecting with her superb catalogue of music."

As our chart shows, Swift topped the list of the world’s best-selling artists for the third year running after coming in second behind K-Pop sensation BTS in 2021. While BTS fell out of the top 10 last year due to their military service, other K-Pop acts such as SEVENTEEN and Stray Kids remained among the global top 5 last year, with rising country star Zach Bryan climbing from 16th to 6th in the ranking. Aside from Taylor Swift, the only other constants in the ranking are Drake, The Weeknd and SEVENTEEN, who have been among the world’s best-selling artists in each of the past three years.