Metal Bands Ranked By Their Spotify Monthly Listener Counts (January 2020)

Welcome back to our monthly column in which we take a look at the publicly available Spotify “monthly listeners” counts and compare a couple of hundred metal bands, hand-picked by yours truly, side by side. For more on why we’re doing this column, read this.

Last month we introduced a new feature: arrows indicating whether a band’s total number of monthly listeners went up since the previous month (↑), down (↓), or stayed the same (→). If no symbol is shown, this is the first time we’ve included the band on this chart. Where a band’s numbers from the previous month are noted in parentheses, their monthly listener count experienced a significant shift (more than 10%, roughly) from month to month.

This month’s listener counts show the vast majority of bands, over 90%, seeing a decrease in monthly listener counts. We surmise that dip is due to music listeners’s attention being pulled elsewhere during the holiday season — and the relative lack of new releases during that time — and we expect to see numbers tick up again next month.

Here are the numbers for January 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 email [email protected] if you’d like to see them added next month). For that reason, we haven’t numbered these rankings: to do so would disingenuously give the appearance this is a comprehensive list, which it is not.

Linkin Park: 17.47 ↑ (last month: 17.02 million)
AC/DC: 17.39 million ↑ (last month: 16.64 million)
Guns N’ Roses: 16.96 million ↑ (last month: 16.40 million)
Metallica: 14.37 million ↑ (last month: 13.99 million)
Foo Fighters: 10.60 million ↑
System of a Down: 8.29 million ↓
Van Halen: 7.88 million ↑
Kiss: 7.52 million ↑
Disturbed: 7.39 million ↑
Black Sabbath: 6.87 million ↓
Slipknot: 6.81 million ↓
Rage Against the Machine: 6.05 million ↓
Ozzy Osbourne: 6.03 million ↓ (last month: 6.58 million)
Rammstein: 5.99 million ↑
Limp Bizkit: 5.77 million ↓
Iron Maiden: 5.19 million ↓
Bring Me the Horizon: 5.05 million ↑
Avenged Sevenfold: 5.04 million ↓
Motley Crue: 5.02 million ↓
Five Finger Death Punch: 4.98 million ↑
Korn: 4.87 million ↓
Whitesnake: 4.64 million ↓
Marilyn Manson: 4.41 million ↓
Def Leppard: 4.61 million ↑
Soundgarden: 4.35 million ↓
Shinedown: 4.29 million ↓
Breaking Benjamin: 4.22 million ↓
Alice in Chains: 4.05 million ↓
A Day to Remember: 3.84 million ↓
Volbeat: 3.55 million ↓
Stone Sour: 3.47 million ↓
Motorhead: 3.39 million ↑
Godsmack: 3.12 million ↓
Pantera: 3.04 million ↓
Tool: 3.00 million ↓
Bullet For My Valentine: 2.82 million
Poison: 2.80 million ↓
Judas Priest: 2.75 million ↓
Bad Wolves: 2.73 million ↓
Megadeth: 2.61 million ↓
Nine Inch Nails: 2.51 million ↓
Faith No More: 2.42 million ↑
Skid Row: 2.39 million ↑
Asking Alexandria: 2.22 million ↓
Deftones: 2.03 million ↓
Killswitch Engage: 1.95 million ↑
Rob Zombie: 1.92 million ↓
Dio: 1.87 million →
Ghost: 1.87 million ↑
Slayer: 1.75 million ↓
Sabaton: 1.69 million ↓
Halestorm: 1.67 million ↓
Alter Bridge: 1.65 million ↓
Nightwish: 1.52 million ↑
Trivium: 1.48 million ↓
Atreyu: 1.40 million ↓ (last month: 1.55 million)
In Flames: 1.37 million ↓
Escape the Fate: 1.36 million ↓
Mudvayne: 1.33 million ↓
Dragonforce: 1.31 million ↓
Within Temptation: 1.29 million ↓
All That Remains: 1.24 million ↓
Parkway Drive: 1.22 million ↓
Lamb of God: 1.20 million ↓
In This Moment: 1.19 million ↓
Motionless in White: 1.17 million ↑
Dream Theater: 1.16 million ↑
Machine Head: 1.11 million ↓
Amon Amarth: 1.05 million ↓
Static-X: 999k ↓
Anthrax: 995k ↓
Danzig: 969k ↓
Gojira: 954k ↓
Misfits: 949k →
Mastodon: 946k ↓
Sepultura: 937k ↓
Airbourne: 896k ↓ (last month: 970k)
Coheed & Cambria: 886k ↓
Ratt: 870k ↓
Amaranthe: 856k ↓
White Zombie: 855k ↓
August Burns Red: 834k ↑ (last month: 704k)
Sevendust: 822k ↓
Architects: 771k ↓ (last month: 844k)
Hellyeah: 766k ↓
Hammerfall: 693k ↓
Opeth: 654k ↓
Children of Bodom: 654k ↓
Alestorm: 652k ↓
Lacuna Coil: 639k ↓
Manowar: 622k ↓
Arch Enemy: 621k ↓
Living Colour: 615k ↓
Issues: 577k ↓
Clutch: 574k ↓
Hatebreed: 563k ↓
Steel Panther: 550k ↑
Fear Factory: 548k ↓
Babymetal: 547k ↓
Poppy: 545k
Sonata Arctica: 524k ↑
Insane Clown Posse: 522k ↓
Suicidal Tendencies: 514k ↓
Eluveitie: 509k ↓
Testament: 504k ↓
Type O Negative: 494k ↑
Suicide Silence: 488k ↑
Skindred: 480k ↓
Korpiklaani: 475k ↑ (last month: 435k)
Epica: 457k ↓
Blind Guardian: 451k ↓
Polyphia: 445k →
Meshuggah: 440k ↓
Death: 432k ↓
Northlane: 421k ↓
Dethklok: 417k ↓
Whitechapel: 415k ↓
Jinjer: 405k ↓
Thy Art is Murder: 404k ↓
After the Burial: 395k ↓
Refused: 394k ↓
Demon Hunter: 388k ↓
Periphery: 387k ↓
Attila: 384k ↓
DevilDriver: 367k ↓
Soulfly: 362k ↓
Turisas: 352k ↓
Avatar: 339k ↓
Cradle of Filth: 336k ↓
Exodus: 335k ↑
Chon: 333k ↓
Light the Torch: 323k ↓ (last month: 367k)
Cannibal Corpse: 319k ↓
Soilwork: 313k ↓
Chelsea Grin: 288k ↓
Dimmu Borgir: 283k ↓
King Diamond: 279k ↓
Kreator: 272k ↑
Animals as Leaders: 271k ↓
New Years Day: 260k ↓
Emmure: 255k ↓
The Ghost Inside: 252k ↓
Knocked Loose: 247k ↓ (last month: 292k)
Veil of Maya: 245k ↓
Overkill: 245k ↑
Corrosion of Conformity: 242k ↓
Born of Osiris: 241k ↓
Down: 235k ↓
Venom: 225k ↑
Ensiferum: 221k ↓
Mercyful Fate: 218k ↓ (last month: 244k)
Cattle Decapitation: 216k ↓
Baroness: 214k ↓ (last month: 235k)
Devin Townsend: 212k ↓
Devin Townsend Project: 210k ↓
Plini: 203k ↑
Dark Tranquillity: 202k ↓
Fit For An Autopsy: 200k ↓ (last month: 222k)
Red Fang: 198k ↓ (last month: 219k)
Code Orange: 198k ↓
Norma Jean: 197k ↓ (last month: 222k)
Insomnium: 189k ↓
The Black Dahlia Murder: 188k ↓
Tesseract: 185k ↓
Between the Buried and Me: 181k ↓
Sleep: 179k ↓
3Teeth: 176k ↓
Mayhem: 165k ↓ (last month: 187k)
Carcass: 165k ↑ (last month: 119k)
Lorna Shore: 163k ↑ (last month: 107k)
Rhapsody of Fire: 162k ↓
Death Angel: 160k ↓
Kvelertak: 158k ↓
The Contortionist: 157k ↓
The Browning: 152k ↓
Rotting Christ: 150k ↓
At the Gates: 150k ↓
The Acacia Strain: 143k ↑ (last month: 116k)
Alien Weaponry: 143k ↓
Deicide: 136k ↓
Carnifex: 134k ↓ (last month: 169k)
Chimaira: 132k ↓
Satyricon: 130k ↓
Dying Fetus: 126k ↓
Myrkur: 116k →
Municipal Waste: 115k ↓
Unearth: 114k ↓
Immortal: 114k ↓
High on Fire: 110k ↓ (last month: 123k)
Deafheaven: 110k ↓ (last month: 123k)
Shadows Fall: 110k ↓ (last month: 121k)
Converge: 109k ↓
Celtic Frost: 109k ↓
Gwar: 108k ↑
Entombed: 106k ↓
Bloodbath: 103k ↓
Ihsahn: 101k ↑ (last month: 49k)
Darkthrone: 100k ↓
Cult of Luna: 95k ↓
Darkest Hour: 91k ↑ (last month: 58k)
Fleshgod Apocalypse: 89k ↓
Havok: 85k ↓
Emperor: 81k ↓
Within the Ruins: 79k ↓
The Agonist: 77k ↓
Enslaved: 75k ↓
Septicflesh: 71k ↓
The Ocean: 70k ↓ (last month: 80k)
Oceano: 67k ↓
The Faceless: 64k ↓
Isis: 62k ↓ (last month: 70k)
Brutus: 61k ↓
Torche: 59k ↓
Allegaeon: 58k ↓
Rivers of Nihil: 58k ↓
Revocation: 57k ↓
Crowbar: 53k ↓ (last month: 60k)
Warbringer: 53k ↓
Neurosis: 51k ↓
Gatecreeper: 50k ↓
Pig Destroyer: 46k ↓
Abbath: 45k ↓ (last month: 55k)
Vein: 44k ↓
Dyscarnate: 40k ↓
Eyehategod: 38k ↓ (last month: 48k)
Cynic: 38k ↓
King’s X: 38k
Yob: 37k ↓ (last month: 44k)
Cave In: 30k ↓ (last month: 35k)
Black Crown Initiate: 25k ↓
Inter Arma: 23k
Exhumed: 20k
Triptykon: 16k ↓
Spirit Adrift: 16k ↑
Venom Prison: 16k ↑
Primitive Man: 12k

By contrast, here are the numbers some modern pop and hip hop artists are sporting:

Ed Sheeran: 64.95 million ↑
Maroon 5: 52.26 million ↑
Billie Eilish: 54.34 million ↑
Drake: 45.40 million ↑
Kanye West: 32.04 million ↓
Taylor Swift: 41.41 million ↑
Katy Perry: 33.96 million ↓ (last month: 39.69 million)
Eminem: 32.07 million ↑
Beyonce: 29.62 million ↑
The Weeknd: 44.07 million ↑ (last month: 35.01 million)
Wiz Khalifa: 21.18 million ↑
Kelly Clarkson: 27.08 million ↑ (last month: 20.20 million)
Dr. Dre: 9.99 million ↑
Carrie Underwood: 5.56 million ↑
Nipsey Hussle: 4.39 million ↑