Who wants to be a billionaire?: The rock songs that have achieved a billion or more streams on Spotify

Since its launch as a humble Swedish start-up in 2008, Spotify has grown to become the biggest streaming platform in the world. And love it or hate it, Spotify is an important metric of success in the modern music industry. Drake became the first artist to achieve a billion streams for a single song, with One Dance in 2016. Since then, a total of 446 songs have passed that same milestone, with two – The Weeknd’s Blinding Lights and Ed Sheeran’s Shape Of You surpassing an incredible 3 billion plays each.

When it comes to rock music, and especially legacy rock music, there are questions of demographic and preference at play. Nearly two thirds of Spotify’s users are aged under 35 and rock fans are more likely than others to listen to traditional radio and music on physical formats. The average age of the Spotify user is creeping up though and streaming is now by far the most common method of music consumption across all combined age groups.

Queen are the best-performing rock band to have joined Spotify’s Billions Club. The 2011 remaster of Bohemian Rhapsody is currently sitting pretty at nearly 2.2 billion streams and they also have another four tracks in the list. Elsewhere, AC/DC have three billion-streamers in Back In Black, Highway To Hell and Thunderstruck. Notable by their absence are monsters of rock like the Rolling Stones, whose best-performing track Paint It Black is just shy of 938 million streams, the Foo Fighters (with Everlong on more than 886m) and Led Zeppelin (846m for Stairway To Heaven).

Here are all the rock songs that have passes a billion Spotify streams as of 18 July 2023…

Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody (2011 Remaster)

Streams: 2.192bn

Twenty One Pilots – Stressed Out (2015)

Streams: 1.981bn

Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit (1991)

Streams: 1.684bn

Queen – Don’t Stop Me Now (2011 Remaster)

Streams: 1.642bn

Linkin Park – In The End (2000)

Streams: 1.618bn

Journey – Don’t Stop Believin’ (1981)

Streams: 1.600bn

Queen – Another One Bites The Dust (2011 Remaster)

Streams: 1.572bn

Twenty One Pilots – Heathens (2016)

Streams: 1.558bn

Guns N’ Roses – Sweet Child O’ Mine (1987)

Streams: 1.548bn

Twenty One Pilots – Ride (2015)

Streams: 1.505bn

TOTO – Africa (1982)

Streams: 1.479bn

Panic! At The Disco – High Hopes (2018)

Streams: 1.427bn

Måneskin – Beggin’ (2021)

Streams: 1.364bn

Queen – Under Pressure (2011 Remaster)

Streams: 1.356bn

Linkin Park – Numb (2003)

Streams: 1.356bn

Eagles – Hotel California (2013 Remaster)

Streams: 1.351bn

White Stripes – Seven Nation Army (2003)

Streams: 1.350bn

AC/DC – Back In Black (1980)

Streams: 1.295bn

Fleetwood Mac – Dreams (2004 Remaster)

Streams: 1.284bn

The Goo Goo Dolls – Iris (1998)

Streams: 1.28bn

Bon Jovi – Livin’ On A Prayer (1986)

Streams: 1.275bn

AC/DC – Highway To Hell (1979)

Streams: 1.272bn

AC/DC – Thunderstruck (1990)

Streams: 1.212bn

Streams: 1.144bn

Red Hot Chili Peppers – Under The Bridge (1991)

Streams: 1.157bn

Red Hot Chili Peppers – Californication (1999)

Streams: 1.154bn

Creedence Clearwater Revival – Have You Ever Seen The Rain? (1970)

Streams: 1.139bn

Lynyrd Skynyrd – Sweet Home Alabama (1974)

Streams: 1.125bn

Queen – We Will Rock You (2011 Remaster)

Streams: 1.082bn

Survivor – Eye Of The Tiger (1982)

Streams: 1.073bn

System Of A Down – Chop Suey! (2001)

Streams: 1.067bn

The Beatles – Here Comes The Sun (2009 Remaster)

Streams: 1.048bn

Nirvana – Come As You Are (1991)

Streams: 1.032bn

Creedence Clearwater Revival – Fortunate Son (1969)

Streams: 1.030bn

Fall Out Boy – Centuries (2014)

Streams: 1.023bn

Source: loudersound.com