Metallica Reached 1.3 Billion Spotify Streams in 2021
Metallica are the biggest metal band on the planet — there's no debate about that. It feels like almost every week we're met with some mind-blowing statistic to further anchor this notion. And on Dec. 31, the group unveiled their 2021 Spotify Wrapped chart, which showcased a staggering 1.3 billion streams on the popular on-demand audio platform.
“With all the ups and downs of 2021, one thing remained consistent – you listened to a lot of Metallica on Spotify! Just when we thought you couldn’t possibly listen to any more, you went and proved us wrong. Clocking in at 112.2, hours of streaming, we were the top artist for [one million] of you! Honestly, we don’t even know what to say. But a massive THANK YOU, 'TALLICA FAMILY feels pretty appropriate right about now. Happy New Year to you all; we’ll see ya in 2022," wrote the grateful Metallica.
Each year, Spotify releases its Wrapped feature, which is oriented to both listeners and artists. For artists, the snapshot breakdown of the year provides statistics for four categories: streams, hours listened, number of listeners and the number of countries in which fans listened to that particular artist.
Shortly after the 2021 feature came out, Loudwire recapped the stats for 50 rock and metal artists, none of whom came remotely close to Metallica's jaw-dropping numbers. Five Finger Death Punch had amassed the greatest number of streams — 582 million — per that recap, with Motley Crue below them at 337.3 million streams, both of which pale in comparison to Metallica despite being rather impressive tallies on their own.
Those 1.3 billion streams of Metallica songs also equated to 112.2 million hours listened by 58 million fans in 178 countries.
Still, all that listening was not enough to send the mighty Metallica past the one billion mark for any one song, a rare feat that had previously been achieved by Guns N' Roses, Nirvana, Journey, Oasis, Linkin Park and more. The music video for "Nothing Else Matters" did surpass one billion views on YouTube earlier this year, but as of the time this article was published, the closest song to that milestone mark is "Enter Sandman" with nearly 782 million Spotify streams.
To see the 2021 Spotify Wrapped stats for 50 other rock and metal artists, head here.