Bad Bunny was the most streamed artist globally in 2025 on Spotify.
Spotify's Global Top Artist is Bad Bunny.

For the fourth time, Bad Bunny is Spotify's Global Top Artist.

For Spotify Wrapped, the streamer's much-anticipated year-end report, the company announced Benito nabbed the title of most-played artist in the world. It marks a return to the top for Bad Bunny, who claimed the most-streamed title in 2020, 2021 and 2022, only to be bested by Taylor Swift in 2023 and 2024.

In statistics shared exclusively with USA TODAY, Spotify revealed that if a single person attempted to listen to all the Bad Bunny streams from 2025 back-to-back, it would take 124,620 years or over 1,200 centuries of non-stop music. He has a loyal band of 27 million listeners and every day his music is streamed over 60 million times on the app.

The Puerto Rican superstar's latest project, "DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS," was also named Spotify's Global Top Album of 2025, cementing his place in the streaming stratosphere and serving to silence a chorus of American consumers who balked when the NFL announced him as this year's Super Bowl halftime performer.

Bad Bunny sings almost exclusively in Spanish, a fact that appeared to offend several Fox News talking heads as well as President Donald Trump, who lambasted the football league for choosing him as their marquee performer. His popularity, in the numbers, is undeniable. Notably, the U.S. was the top streamer for Bad Bunny's music among non-Spanish-speaking markets.

"Having Bad Bunny as our Global Artist for the fourth time – that's historic, that's unprecedented, we've never seen that before," Mia Nygren, the general manager of Spotify Latin America, tells USA TODAY. "It's so particularly cool and special and meaningful because he's doing this leaning into his roots and Puerto Rican story in such an unapologetic way."

Bad Bunny caps off record year in 2025

Spotify's honorific caps off a record year for Bad Bunny, who made history with a residency in Puerto Rico and is headed out on a world tour. In conjunction, Spotify will pull out all the stops for a campaign celebrating his new title. Fan events are planned in Paris, Mexico City, Madrid, Puerto Rico, and Bogota and a short film, following Bad Bunny's "Sapo Concho" as he journeys across the globe, showing how "DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS," spotlighted Puerto Rico and its music, will launch Dec. 3.

Nygren gushes about Bad Bunny's "super loyal" fan base, and says, despite all the accolades he's racked up, this one still means a lot to him.

"This is not something that we are giving him; this is something that our users and his fans are giving him," she says. In return, he's gifted the music industry sterling proof that hyper-local stories can be universal and people are still hungry for authenticity, whether it arrives in their native tongue or not.

"I think there's a huge shift in how music is being orchestrated," Nygren says. "Who would have thought that someone leaning into an immediate environment that is such a strong identity from a local point of view, that's even in a different language, (would be so successful).

"The way that he is talking about something meaningful is resonating beyond Puerto Rico, because these are universal traits," she continued.

Sapo Concho gets his moment in the spotlight

At the center of Spotify's campaign to celebrate Bad Bunny is Sapo Concho, a sort of macguffin for the artist in the form of Puerto Rico's native crested frog.

A charming, if not historically relevant character whose threatened extinction sends a larger message in Bad Bunny's latest album, Concho, clad in a straw hat, stars in the short film from Spotify. Made with Stillz and A1 Productions, the video shows the frog traipsing the globe taking photos (Él no olvidó) and telling the story of the culture that birthed the album.

A small animation of the frog will also be visible on the play button for Spotify users enjoying any of Bad Bunny's music.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How did Bad Bunny become Spotify Wrapped's top global artist? Exclusive look at his stats

Reporting by Anna Kaufman, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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