Global Recording Artist of the Year

The Global Recording Artist of the Year is an award presented by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) to honor the year's commercially best-performing musician, based on global album-equivalent units earned, which includes music downloads, streaming and physical sales. It has been awarded every year since January 2014, starting with the British boy band One Direction, who won the accolade for 2013. American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift is the biggest winner of the accolade, having won six times—in 2014, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025.

Winners The IFPI Global Recording Artist of the Year has been awarded every year since January 2014, with British boy band One Direction becoming the first act to receive the accolade for 2013. This success was attributed to the band's third studio album, Midnight Memories, which became the best-selling album of the year. Taylor Swift was awarded the Global Recording Artist of 2014 following her fifth studio album, 1989. It spawned two international number-one singles, "Shake It Off" and "Blank Space".

Adele received the award for the Global Recording Artist of 2015 with the release of her third studio album, 25. It was the best-selling album of the year, with its lead single, "Hello", reaching number one in nearly every country in which it charted. The Global Recording Artist of 2016 went to Drake, whose fourth studio album, Views, was the third best-selling album of the year. The album's second single, "One Dance", became the biggest digital song of the year.

Ed Sheeran received the award for 2017 with the release of his third studio album ÷, which included the singles "Shape of You", "Castle on the Hill", "Galway Girl", and "Perfect". He became the first recipient to have both the best-selling album and single of the year. Drake won the award again in 2018, which made him the first artist to win twice.

Swift matched Drake's achievement when she received the award again for 2019. Her seventh studio album, Lover, was the second best-selling album of 2019. The award for 2020 went to BTS. The band's fourth and fifth studio albums, Map of the Soul: 7 and Be, were the top two best-selling albums of the year. BTS became the first Asian act to win the award. The band repeated the feat for 2021, becoming the third artist—after Drake and Swift—to win the award twice, and the first to do so in consecutive years. Swift became the first artist to win thrice when she was awarded the Global Recording Artist of 2022, following the success of her tenth studio album Midnights. She claimed the award again in 2023, 2024, and 2025, the latter two of which saw her eleventh and twelfth studio albums The Tortured Poets Department and The Life of a Showgirl become the best-selling albums of their respective years.

Annual top-10 artists

2013 Rank Artist IFPI Top 10 Album of the Year IFPI Top 10 Single of the Year 1 One Direction Midnight Memories 2 Eminem The Marshall Mathers LP2 3 Justin Timberlake The 20/20 Experience 4 Bruno Mars Unorthodox Jukebox "When I Was Your Man" 5 Katy Perry Prism "Roar" 6 Pink "Just Give Me a Reason" 7 Macklemore & Ryan Lewis "Thrift Shop" 8 Rihanna "Stay" 9 Michael Bublé To Be Loved 10 Daft Punk Random Access Memories "Get Lucky"

2014 Rank Artist IFPI Top 10 Album of the Year IFPI Top 10 Single of the Year 1 Taylor Swift 1989 2 One Direction Four 3 Ed Sheeran X 4 Coldplay Ghost Stories 5 AC/DC Rock or Bust 6 Michael Jackson 7 Pink Floyd The Endless River 8 Sam Smith In The Lonely Hour 9 Katy Perry "Dark Horse" 10 Beyoncé

2015 Rank Artist IFPI Top 10 Album of the Year IFPI Top 10 Single of the Year 1 Adele 25 "Hello" 2 Ed Sheeran X "Thinking Out Loud" 3 Taylor Swift 1989 "Blank Space" 4 Justin Bieber Purpose 5 One Direction Made in the A.M. 6 Coldplay A Head Full Of Dreams 7 Maroon 5 "Sugar" 8 Sam Smith In The Lonely Hour 9 Drake 10 The Weeknd Beauty Behind The Madness

2016 Rank Artist IFPI Top 10 Album of the Year IFPI Top 10 Single of the Year 1 Drake Views "One Dance" 2 David Bowie Blackstar 3 Coldplay A Head Full of Dreams 4 Adele 25 5 Justin Bieber "Love Yourself" "Sorry" 6 Twenty One Pilots Blurryface "Stressed Out" 7 Beyoncé Lemonade 8 Rihanna "Work" 9 Prince 10 The Weeknd

2017 Rank Artist IFPI Top 10 Album of the Year IFPI Top 10 Single of the Year 1 Ed Sheeran ÷ "Shape of You" "Perfect" 2 Drake 3 Taylor Swift Reputation 4 Kendrick Lamar Damn "Humble" 5 Eminem Revival 6 Bruno Mars 24K Magic "That's What I Like" 7 The Weeknd 8 Imagine Dragons "Believer" 9 Linkin Park 10 The Chainsmokers "Something Just like This" "Closer"

2018 Rank Artist IFPI Top 10 Album of the Year IFPI Top 10 Single of the Year 1 Drake "God's Plan" 2 BTS Love Yourself: Answer Love Yourself: Tear 3 Ed Sheeran ÷ "Shape of You" "Perfect" 4 Post Malone "Psycho" 5 Eminem Kamikaze 6 Queen Bohemian Rhapsody 7 Imagine Dragons 8 Ariana Grande 9 Lady Gaga A Star Is Born 10 Bruno Mars

2019 Rank Artist IFPI Top 10 Album of the Year IFPI Top 10 Single of the Year 1 Taylor Swift Lover 2 Ed Sheeran No.6 Collaborations Project "I Don't Care" 3 Post Malone "Sunflower" 4 Billie Eilish When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? "Bad Guy" 5 Queen Bohemian Rhapsody: The Original Soundtrack 6 Ariana Grande Thank U, Next "7 Rings" 7 BTS Map of the Soul: Persona 8 Drake 9 Lady Gaga A Star Is Born "Shallow" 10 The Beatles Abbey Road

2020 IFPI's global albums chart was based on pure units sold until 2019. Since 2020, the albums have been reported using album-equivalent units (all-format chart). For singles, until 2019, IFPI listed the figures based on a combination of pure track downloads and streaming numbers converted into track-equivalent units. Since 2020, the method has been reversed, with downloads being converted into stream-equivalent figure. Rank Artist IFPI Top 10 Album of the Year IFPI Top 10 Single of the Year 1 BTS Map of the Soul: 7 Be "Dynamite" 2 Taylor Swift Folklore 3 Drake "Life Is Good" 4 The Weeknd After Hours "Blinding Lights" 5 Billie Eilish When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? "Bad Guy" 6 Eminem 7 Post Malone Hollywood's Bleeding 8 Ariana Grande 9 Juice Wrld 10 Justin Bieber Changes

2021 Rank Artist IFPI Top 10 Album of the Year IFPI Top 10 Single of the Year 1 BTS "Butter" 2 Taylor Swift 3 Adele 30 4 Drake 5 Ed Sheeran = "Bad Habits" 6 The Weeknd After Hours "Save Your Tears" "Blinding Lights" 7 Billie Eilish 8 Justin Bieber Justice "Stay" "Peaches" 9 Seventeen 10 Olivia Rodrigo Sour "Drivers License" "Good 4 U"

2022 Rank Artist IFPI Top 10 Album of the Year IFPI Top 10 Single of the Year 1 Taylor Swift Midnights 2 BTS Proof 3 Drake 4 Bad Bunny Un Verano Sin Ti "Me Porto Bonito" 5 The Weeknd "Save Your Tears" 6 Seventeen Face the Sun 7 Stray Kids Maxident 8 Harry Styles Harry's House "As It Was" 9 Jay Chou 10 Ed Sheeran = "Shivers" "Bad Habits"

2023 Rank Artist IFPI Top 10 Album of the Year IFPI Top 10 Single of the Year 1 Taylor Swift Midnights 1989 (Taylor's Version) "Cruel Summer" "Anti-Hero" 2 Seventeen FML Seventeenth Heaven 3 Stray Kids 5-Star Rock-Star 4 Drake 5 The Weeknd "Die For You" 6 Morgan Wallen One Thing at a Time "Last Night" 7 Tomorrow X Together 8 NewJeans 9 Bad Bunny 10 Lana Del Rey

2024 Rank Artist IFPI Top 10 Album of the Year IFPI Top 10 Single of the Year 1 Taylor Swift The Tortured Poets Department "Cruel Summer" 2 Drake 3Seventeen Spill the Feels 17 Is Right Here 4 Billie Eilish Hit Me Hard and Soft "Birds of a Feather" 5 Stray Kids Ate 6 Zach Bryan 7 The Weeknd 8 Eminem 9 Kendrick Lamar "Not Like Us" 10 Sabrina Carpenter Short n' Sweet "Espresso" 2025 Rank Artist IFPI Top 10 Album of the Year IFPI Top 10 Single of the Year 1 Taylor Swift The Life of a Showgirl 2 Stray Kids Karma 3Drake 4 The Weeknd 5 Bad Bunny Debí Tirar Más Fotos 6 Kendrick Lamar "Luther" "Not Like Us" 7 Morgan Wallen I'm the Problem 8 Sabrina Carpenter Short n' Sweet 9 Billie Eilish Hit Me Hard And Soft "Birds of a Feather" 10 Lady Gaga Mayhem "Die with a Smile"

Statistics

+Most award wins Wins Artist Year(s) 6 Taylor Swift 2 Drake BTS

+Most top 3 appearances Top 3appearances ArtistWins 10 Taylor Swift 6 7 Drake 2 5 Ed Sheeran 1 4 BTS 2 2 Adele 1 Seventeen 0 Stray Kids 0

+Most top 5 appearances Top 5appearances Artist Wins 10 Taylor Swift 6 9 Drake 2 6 Ed Sheeran 1 4 The Weeknd 0 3 BTS 2 Adele 1 Stray Kids 0 Billie Eilish 0

+Most top 10 appearances Top 10appearances Artist Wins 11 Drake 2 10 Taylor Swift 6 9 The Weeknd 0 7 Ed Sheeran 1 5 Billie Eilish 0 BTS 2 Eminem 0

Global Recording Artist of the Year

Bron en licentie