In March 2021, Spotify expanded into the African market, making their streaming platform accessible to millions of listeners in 38 countries (previously, the digital music company only operated in a couple of select countries). With music streaming becoming more and more popular in the continent, it’s only right that we extract and analyse those streaming numbers.
This article ranks African artists in terms of Spotify monthly listeners and, like you’d have guessed, Nigeria’s Afrobeats dominates. Mavin Records artist Rema leads the pack with over 31 million. South African sensation Tyla comes in second with 28 million while Burna Boy and Tems with 18 million and 14 million monthly listeners take the third and fourth positions, respectively. Ayra Starr wraps up the top 5.
Six musicians are heard by over 10 million artists every month on Spotify, with four others inching closer to that mark.
See the whole list in the table below.
| Rank | Artist | Spotify Monthly Listeners |
| 1. | Rema | 31,939,009 |
| 2. | Tyla | 28,356,253 |
| 3. | Burna Boy | 18,885,017 |
| 4. | Tems | 14,956,306 |
| 5. | Ayra Starr | 10,876,261 |
| 6. | Soolking | 10,416,496 |
| 7. | Libianca | 9,929,132 |
| 8. | Wizkid | 9,600,132 |
| 9. | CKay | 9,582,217 |
| 10. | Davido | 8,662,612 |
| 11. | Fireboy DML | 7,743,165 |
| 12. | Omah Lay | 7,605,605 |
| 13. | Victony | 6,611,996 |
| 14. | Asake | 6,363,692 |
| 15. | Oxlade | 5,250,280 |
| 16. | Tempoe | 5,146,559 |
| 17. | Kizz Daniel | 4,771,354 |
ALSO: check out the top African music blogs.
