Over 200 Metal Bands Ranked By Their Spotify Monthly Listener Counts (November 2019)
First-week sales figures still get a whole lot of attention despite their waning importance. While those numbers do retain some meaning, especially relative to one another, I’ve yet to see streaming figures touted in any meaningful, comparative analysis that carries weight in industry discussions.
Of the various, disparate metrics available in the streaming world, I find Spotify’s “Monthly Listeners” measure to be the most useful in comparing one band’s relative popularity to another. Posted on the top of every artist’s main page, the number quantifies how many users actively listened to a band within the past 28 days, and the tally is updated every day for a rolling, current metric that anyone can view. This method of quantification has some flaws — namely that it’ll always favor artists who have released music more recently and will skew towards younger, more technologically inclined listeners — but it’s the best measure we’ve got.
We debuted this column back in July and plan to make it monthly from now on. Here are the numbers for November which, crucially, are not comprehensive: these are bands I decided to look up manually, and it is absolutely the case that many popular bands aren’t included (please drop their names in the comments if you’d like to see them included next month). For that reason, we haven’t numbered these rankings: to do so would give the appearance this is a comprehensive list.
AC/DC: 17.95 million
Guns N’ Roses: 16.55 million
Linkin Park: 16.74 million
Metallica: 14.10 million
Foo Fighters: 10.8 million
Van Halen: 8.4 million
System of a Down: 8.36 million
Kiss: 7.52 million
Disturbed: 7.33 million
Black Sabbath: 6.96 million
Slipknot: 6.84 million
Rage Against the Machine: 6.08 million
Limp Bizkit: 5.95 million
Ozzy Osbourne: 5.93 million
Rammstein: 5.64 million
Marilyn Manson: 5.60 million
Motley Crue: 5.16 million
Korn: 5.07 million
Def Leppard: 4.69 million
Avenged Sevenfold: 5.14 million
Whitesnake: 4.82 million
Iron Maiden: 5.41 million
Soundgarden: 4.60 million
Five Finger Death Punch: 4.63 million
Shinedown: 4.32 million
Bring Me the Horizon: 4.24 million
Breaking Benjamin: 4.35 million
Alice in Chains: 4.09 million
A Day to Remember: 3.75 million
Volbeat: 3.70 million
Stone Sour: 3.61 million
Motorhead: 3.43 million
Godsmack: 3.34 million
Tool: 3.18 million
Pantera: 3.16 million
Poison: 2.92 million
Judas Priest: 2.84 million
Megadeth: 2.67 million
Bad Wolves: 2.78 million
Nine Inch Nails: 2.56 million
Rob Zombie: 2.45 million
Skid Row: 2.42 million
Faith No More: 2.37 million
Asking Alexandria: 2.27 million
Deftones: 2.13 million
Killswitch Engage: 2.04 million
Dio: 1.87 million
Alter Bridge: 1.87 million
Sabaton: 1.76 million
Ghost: 1.69 million
Slayer: 1.68 million
Trivium: 1.62 million
Halestorm: 1.68 million
Atreyu: 1.57 million
Nightwish: 1.48 million
Mudvayne: 1.47 million
In Flames: 1.43 million
Dragonforce: 1.38 million
All That Remains: 1.34 million
In This Moment: 1.30 million
Misfits: 1.30 million
Lamb of God: 1.29 million
Within Temptation: 1.29 million
Machine Head: 1.29 million
Parkway Drive: 1.25 million
Dream Theater: 1.16 million
Motionless in White: 1.13 million
Amon Amarth: 1.10 million
Static-X: 1.09 million
Anthrax: 1.08 million
Danzig: 1.03 million
Gojira: 991k
White Zombie: 975k
Sevendust: 962k
Coheed & Cambria: 958k
Mastodon: 909k
Hellyeah: 895k
Amaranthe: 863k
Sepultura: 842k
Lacuna Coil: 783k
Airbourne: 753k
Architects: 751k
Babymetal: 745k
Opeth: 725k
Hammerfall: 717k
Children of Bodom: 692k
Arch Enemy: 664k
Manowar: 639k
Alestorm: 637k
Living Colour: 615k
Hatebreed: 603k
Insane Clown Posse: 596k
Fear Factory: 596k
Suicidal Tendencies: 589k
Issues: 585k
August Burns Red: 578k
Clutch: 550k
Steel Panther: 546k
Type O Negative: 542k
Testament: 535k
Skindred: 524k
Eluveitie: 522k
Refused: 515k
Sonata Arctica: 500k
Jinjer: 500k
Epica: 489k
Meshuggah: 462k
Blind Guardian: 462k
Whitechapel: 449k
Thy Art is Murder: 444k
Northlane: 443k
Death: 437k
Korpiklaani: 431k
Dethklok: 413k
Polyphia: 410k
After the Burial: 397k
Demon Hunter: 395k
Periphery: 392k
Suicide Silence: 387k
Soulfly: 386k
Attila: 385k
Cradle of Filth: 373k
Soilwork: 367k
Light the Torch: 366k
Tursias: 359k
Chon: 338k
Avatar: 337k
Cannibal Corpse: 330k
Exodus: 303k
Dimmu Borgir: 293k
Chelsea Grin: 283k
Norma Jean: 268k
New Years Day: 267k
The Ghost Inside: 266k
Animals as Leaders: 258k
Kreator: 258k
Veil of Maya: 257k
Corrosion of Conformity: 256k
Down: 255k
Emmure: 254k
Knocked Loose: 253k
Born of Osiris: 248k
Mercyful Fate: 237k
Fit For An Autopsy: 237k
King Diamond: 233k
Overkill: 224k
Baroness: 222k
Ensiferum: 222k
Mayhem: 221k
Venom: 216k
Dark Tranquillity: 215k
Red Fang: 214k
Code Orange: 211k
Devin Townsend: 202k
Sleep: 202k
Plini: 193k
The Black Dahlia Murder: 193k
Between the Buried and Me: 192k
Tesseract: 192k
3Teeth: 180k
Carnifex: 176k
Rhapsody of Fire: 174k
The Contortionist: 170k
Death Angel: 165k
At the Gates: 164k
Cattle Decapitation: 162k
The Browning: 161k
Municipal Waste: 156k
Alien Weaponry: 147k
Chimaira: 146k
Rotting Christ: 139k
Deicide: 136k
Dying Fetus: 134k
Satyricon: 132k
Unearth: 126k
Shadows Fall: 121k
Immortal: 121k
Myrkur: 116k
Converge: 116k
Darkthrone: 116k
Carcass: 115k
The Acacia Strain: 115k
Celtic Frost: 113k
High on Fire: 111k
Gwar: 111k
Deafheaven: 111k
Cult of Luna: 109k
Bloodbath: 108k
Fleshgod Apocalypse: 101k
Kvelertak: 99k
Darkest Hour: 96k
Fleshgod Apocalypse: 91k
Emperor: 90k
Havok: 87k
Within the Ruins: 87k
The Agonist: 83k
Cult of Luna: 74k
Septicflesh: 71k
Oceano: 71k
The Ocean: 70k
Torche: 65k
Torche: 65k
Neurosis: 65k
Allegaeon: 64k
Revocation: 62k
The Faceless: 64k
Warbringer: 64k
Isis: 64k
Rivers of Nihil: 59k
Lorna Shore: 58k
Brutus: 55k
Crowbar: 55k
Pig Destroyer: 52k
Abbath: 51k
Vein: 50k
Ihsahn: 46k
Cynic: 44k
Dyscarnate: 43k
Yob: 42k
Cave In: 35k
Black Crown Initiate: 28k
Triptykon: 14k
Spirit Adrift: 13k
Venom Prison: 13k
By contrast, here are the numbers some modern pop and hip hop artists are sporting:
Ed Sheeran: 65.43 million
Maroon 5: 47.93 million
Billie Eilish: 42.34 million
Drake: 40.51 million
Kanye West: 36.93 million
Taylor Swift: 34.01 million
Katy Perry: 32.88 million
Eminem: 30.78 million
Beyonce: 28.97 million
The Weeknd: 24.99 million
Wiz Khalifa: 20.39 million
Kelly Clarkson: 12.66 million
Dr. Dre: 9.45 million
Carrie Underwood: 5.35 million
Nipsey Hussle: 4.32 million
