There’s a reason music fans keep obsessively refreshing Spotify’s streaming charts. Somewhere in that constantly shifting list of numbers is a genuine record book, one that shows which songs actually became part of the fabric of people’s lives rather than just having a big opening week. Sitting comfortably at the top of that book is a five year old synth-pop song that refuses to let go of first place.
“Blinding Lights” has been Spotify’s most streamed song of all time since January 2023, when it passed Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You” to take the crown. As of this year, The Weeknd’s signature hit sits above 5.4 billion streams, making it the only song in Spotify’s history to cross the 5 billion mark. Nothing else is even really in the same neighbourhood.
That doesn’t mean nothing is chasing it. A handful of songs are closing in, some through sheer old fashioned staying power, some through pure momentum, and one through a combination so rare that it might actually have a real shot. Here’s where things stand.
Shape of You, Ed Sheeran
Sitting at 4.990 billion streams, “Shape of You” is the closest anything has ever come to “Blinding Lights,” though the gap is still hundreds of millions of streams wide. Of every song on this list, Sheeran’s has the most reliable engine behind it. “Shape of You” doesn’t spike and it doesn’t dip, it simply adds tens of millions of streams every month, year after year, the way it has since 2017. Ed Sheeran remains one of the most road tested touring artists in the world, having spent years playing arenas and stadiums across every continent, and that constant live presence keeps feeding streams back into his catalogue in a way few artists can match. If pure consistency wins this race, “Shape of You” doesn’t need luck or a viral moment. It just needs time, and given how steady its climb has been, it may genuinely be the song most likely to get there first.
Sweater Weather, The Neighbourhood
This one is the wildest story on the list. “Sweater Weather” came out in 2013 as the lead single from The Neighbourhood’s debut album, and for years it lived the normal life of a well loved alt rock song, respected but not remotely close to streaming immortality. Then TikTok happened. In late 2020, the song found a massive second life on the platform, gaining over five million streams in a single month, a resurgence that never really stopped. Today it sits at 4.715 billion streams and is officially the third most streamed song in Spotify’s history, a fact that would have sounded absurd a decade ago. What makes “Sweater Weather” fascinating as a contender is that it isn’t slowing down. It has become something close to a generational anthem online, still finding new listeners more than a decade after release, and The Neighbourhood is actively touring in 2026 in support of it. A song built entirely on rediscovery has already defied the odds once. It wouldn’t be surprising if it kept climbing longer than expected.
Starboy, The Weeknd and Daft Punk
The Weeknd is, in a sense, chasing his own record. “Starboy” currently sits at 4.623 billion streams and has been one of the fastest risers of any song near the top of the chart, adding streams at one of the highest daily rates of anything in Spotify’s top five. Part of that comes from The Weeknd’s massive, ongoing global popularity, having become the first artist ever to have 30 different songs pass a billion streams each, and part of it comes from the enduring cool factor of a Daft Punk collaboration that still sounds futuristic nearly a decade later. There’s a real irony here: if any song ever does catch “Blinding Lights,” there’s a real chance it’s another Weeknd song doing it, making him the artist most likely to break his own record.
As It Was, Harry Styles
Released in 2022, “As It Was” has had one of the fastest climbs of any song this far up the list, already sitting at 4.44 billion streams. It became the most successful song of the 2020s to reach this streaming tier, out pacing songs that had years of extra head start on it. Styles’ continued global touring, along with the song’s ongoing life as a radio and playlist staple, has kept it climbing at a pace that outperforms most catalogue tracks twice its age. It’s the youngest song in this conversation by a wide margin, which makes its position even more impressive, and gives it the longest runway of anything on this list if it can sustain anywhere close to its current pace.
Die with a Smile, Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars
Then there’s the song that started this in the first place. “Die with a Smile” doesn’t have the raw total the others do yet, sitting around 3.6 billion streams, but the way it got there is unlike anything else on this list. It reached 1 billion streams faster than any song in Spotify’s history, then went on to spend 201 consecutive days at number one on the Global Chart, the longest run any song has ever had at the top. Bruno Mars remains one of the most reliable hit makers Spotify has ever tracked, and paired with Lady Gaga’s massive built in audience and a heavy 2025 into 2026 touring schedule from both artists, this song has the kind of sustained dominance that mirrors exactly how “Blinding Lights” built its lead in the first place.
Betting on consistency and a head start makes it hard to bet against “Shape of You.” Betting on the song with the most unstoppable current momentum points toward “Die with a Smile.” And for a genuinely fun story to follow, “Sweater Weather” is worth watching, a decade old song that shouldn’t still be this popular and simply refuses to fade.
“Blinding Lights” isn’t losing its crown anytime soon. But for the first time in years, there’s a real conversation to be had about which song eventually takes it, and that conversation alone says something about how much streaming has changed the way a song’s true popularity gets measured.
