The Weeknd Named the World’s ‘Most Popular Artist’ by Guinness World Records

It’s official: The Weeknd is statistically the most popular artist in the world according to Guinness World Records.

The organization proffered the title upon the pop star on Monday after analyzing the Spotify data of some of the biggest names in the music industry, including number of monthly listeners on the streaming platform.

Considering the artist otherwise known as Abel Tesfaye holds the record as the first, and so far only, artist in Spotify history to reach 100 million monthly listeners as of the end of February, he’s far and away at the top of the class. And yet, even in the few weeks since he crossed the nine-figure threshold, the “Starboy” singer has gained even more streaming followers — up to 111.4 million, according to the Guinness report.

And there’s quite the wide berth between that mind-boggling number and the next artist on the list, Miley Cyrus, who currently tallies 82.4 million monthly listeners in the wake of releasing her hotly anticipated eighth studio album Endless Summer Vacation. Other artists who trail The Weeknd include Shakira (81.6 million), Ariana Grande (80.6 million), Taylor Swift (80. 2 million), Rihanna (78.5 million) and Ed Sheeran (77.5 million).

A little over a week ago, The Weeknd swept the 2023 Juno Awards in his native Canada, taking home four awards, including both artist of the year and songwriter of the year for a record fourth time; single of the year for a third time (for 2022’s “Sacrifice”)l and pop album of the year (for Dawn FM).