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

2023 was a year of superlatives for Taylor Swift: she was the most-streamed artist in the world on Spotify and Apple Music, had the three best-selling albums in the United States, her “Eras Tour” became the first ever to gross more than $1 billion and the documentary shot during the tour turned out to be the highest-grossing concert movie of all time. To top it all off, IFPI, the governing body of the global music industry, announced on Wednesday 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 fourth time.

“We are immensely proud to award the IFPI Global Recording Artist of the Year Award to Taylor Swift for the fourth time, as she continues to redefine the limits of global success,” Lewis Morrison, director of charts and certifications at IFPI said. “Taylor is a singular talent and her commitment to her craft and her fans is truly phenomenal.”

As our chart shows, Swift topped the list of the world’s best-selling artists for the second year running after coming in second behind K-Pop sensation BTS in 2021. While BTS fell out of this year’s top 10 due to their military service, other K-Pop acts such as SEVENTEEN, Stray Kids and TOMORROW x TOGETHER made a big splash in 2023, with rising country star Morgan Wallen also new in the top 8. Aside from Taylor Swift, the only other constants in the ranking are Drake and The Weeknd, who have been among the world’s best-selling artists in each of the past three years.