Today, the most-streamed song of the year is debated heavily. Just googling the question will give you an assortment of charts with different rankings and songs with different streaming numbers. This has a ton of different requirements: time at the top, how many platforms it was atop, whether it was part of an album, which country, etc.

Let’s take Spotify to start. The end-of-the-year rollout focused mainly on the top songs in hip-hop but primarily pop. At the top of their charts was “Die With A Smile” by Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga, which has 1.7 billion streams. However, this is all within Spotify’s app and system. It reflects their users’ behavior and what’s popular within Spotify.

Apple Music tells a completely different story. While Spotify’s top song comes in third on Apple Music’s chart, it follows Luther by Kendrick Lamar and SZA in second place, and APT by Rose and Bruno Mars topped their charts. Their metrics are a lot different; for instance, the Apple Music window for these numbers is a November-October timeline, and the charts can be heavily influenced by those with a paid subscription. This shows the different data-tracking and listening patterns used by each app.

Billboard takes the whole numbers across all sites, including YouTube video views. This is why if a music video goes viral, it can overtake a song that has more streams on a particular website. Billboard’s top song of the year hasn’t been fully released, “Ordinary” by Alex Warren, was the top song of the Billboard Hot 100 for the entire fourteen-week duration of the summer. Luther also topped the Hot 100 for thirteen weeks, from March 1st until May 24th. Other premier artists like Bruno Mars, Lady Gaga, and Taylor Swift were included as well, with songs that placed first on the Hot 100 during 2025.

Kworb is a pure numbers tracker on songs played in 2025 is a good metric to use; however, it is an estimation. Taking in numbers across all apps and how many times they were roughly played daily, and during this year. This is across all streaming platforms and includes radio, YouTube, and chart rankings. Yet again, another different story told. “Ordinary” by Alex Warren, “DtMF” by Bad Bunny, and “Golden” by HUNTR/X round out the top three. Again, it’s a raw estimation, yet another metric tells a completely different story.

In the end, it’s more about preference. What matters most to you? What metric decides the most listened to artist, or what app you decide matters the most to you, will help you answer that question. Is it just the most-streamed? An industry-wide look? A look based on just raw subscriber numbers? You decide.