Billionaire pop star Taylor Swift was named the top-performing artist of 2025 by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, her record-setting fourth year in a row as the year’s biggest artist across streams and sales.
Key Facts
- Swift reigns at the top for the fourth year in a row and her sixth time overall, buoyed to the top in 2025 by the record-breaking sales of her latest album “The Life of a Showgirl.”
- Before her run at No. 1 spanning 2022 to 2025, Swift also ranked No. 1 in 2019 and 2014.
- IFPI considers global physical music sales, digital downloads and streaming data to calculate its rankings, and the organization says it offers the “most complete picture of artist, album and track performance worldwide.”
- IFPI said in a release the achievement indicates Swift’s “creative consistency and the long-term global strategies supporting her releases,” after “The Life of a Showgirl” became the fastest-selling album of all time in the United States and broke comparable records worldwide.
Who Else Made This Year’s Top 10 Artists?
Behind Taylor Swift at No. 2 is the K-pop group Stray Kids, their highest ranking ever, followed by Drake at No. 3, his eleventh appearance in the top 10. The Weeknd ranked No. 4, his ninth year in the top 10, followed by Bad Bunny at No. 5, who made the ranking following his blockbuster Super Bowl halftime show performance and his Album of the Year win at the Grammy Awards. Rounding out the top 10 are Kendrick Lamar, Morgan Wallen, Sabrina Carpenter, Billie Eilish and Lady Gaga.
Key Background
Taylor Swift released “The Life of a Showgirl” in October, which became one of her most critically polarizing albums but shattered sales records worldwide. The album sold nearly 3.5 million copies in its first week and achieved more than 4 million total consumption units, which also factors in streaming, in its first week, the largest-ever first-week total for an album in the United States. Swift also earned the biggest album debut in the streaming era in Canada, while marking the largest album debut for an international artist in multiple countries, including Italy and Sweden. “The Life of a Showgirl” earned the biggest album debut in nearly a decade in the United Kingdom and the largest of the 21st century for an international artist. “The Fate of Ophelia,” the album’s lead single, topped the Billboard Hot 100 for 10 weeks, her longest-running No. 1 single, and ranked No. 1 in dozens of countries.
Forbes Valuation
Taylor Swift is worth $1.6 billion, according to Forbes estimates, making her the wealthiest woman in music and the first person to become a billionaire based solely on the value of her music catalog and concert tours. She became a billionaire in October 2023, partially thanks to the record-shattering success of the Eras Tour.
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This story was originally published on forbes.com and all figures are in USD.
