Who are the biggest artists in the world in 2026?
Who’s the most popular music artist in the world right now? Check out the cross-platform best-performing artists in January 2026.
Here are the artists racking up the most streams and gaining the most new fans across the music world in 2026. As an artists gets more follows and listens on Spotify and Apple Music, Pandora, Deezer, SoundCloud and other streaming platforms, and the better they perform on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and across the rest of social media, the closer they get to becoming the biggest artist in the world.
Since we last checked the ranking in January, there’s been a fair amount of movement among the top 10. With the release of her twelfth studio album in October last year, Taylor Swift has reclaimed the top spot after dethroning Justin Bieber. Bruno Mars, The Weeknd and Rihanna climb up in the rankings, while Ed Sheeran, Drake and Billie Eilish all drop places in the top ten. Ariana Grande enters the top ten at number nine, overthrowing KAROL G who was previously sitting in tenth place.
Any surprises here amongst the most popular artists in 2026?
Score: 99.4
Score: 99.2
Score: 99.1
Score: 99.0
Score: 98.9
Score: 98.8
Score: 98.7
Score: 98.7
Score: 98.6
Score: 98.5
The data is based on Chartmetric’s cross platform performance analysis, which takes into account the artist’s overall reach with listeners in terms of listens, views and consumption, and how many followers the artist has in their fanbase across the web.
Who’s your number one artist in 2026?