IFPI Releases List of Top 10 Best Selling Artists, Singles & Albums in The World of 2020

International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) has released its much awaited 2021 global music report which shares key stats about the music industry in 2020.

We all know how Covid-19 impacted the whole world last year and the music industry couldn’t escape it either. But there’s some good news. The total revenues climbed to $21.6 billion last year, up 7.4% on the previous year. The growth is largely due to the increase in streaming subscription and marks the sixth consecutive year of growth.

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If we’re talking paid streaming revenue, it grew by +18.5% whereas physical sales revenue dipped by -4.7%. On the other hand, Sync’s share of total global revenues is at 2% while streaming took 62.1% of the total revenue generated in 2020.

IFPI has also shared the top selling artists, singles and albums of 2020. BTS tops the list, representing the bestselling and most popular artists worldwide in 2020. The K-pop group had the year’s top two highest selling albums with Map of the Soul: 7 (selling 4.8 million units) and BE Deluxe Edition (2.69 million units). The Weeknd’s ‘Blinding Lights’, which was snubbed for a GRAMMY nomination, generated 2.7 billion subscription stream equivalents globally.

Here are the 10 best selling artists of 2020 in the world:

1. BTS
2. Taylor Swift
3. Drake
4. The Weeknd
5. Billie Eilish
6. Eminem
7. Post Malone
8. Ariana Grande
9. Juice WRLD
10. Justin Bieber

Needless to say, seeing Eminem on the list in the year 2020 at the age of 48 years definitely is a testament of his longevity in the game.

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IFPI does not provide a market-by-market revenue breakdown but notes that Latin America was the fastest-growing thanks to streaming expansion of 30.2%. That market is up 15.9% while Asia grew at 9.5%, despite Japan’s 2.1% fall in revenues. Africa and the Middle East grew at 8.4% while combined U.S. and Canada region grew 7.4% in 2020.

IFPI Chief Exec Frances Moore said during the online press conference: “The work and investment from record companies in previous years has really helped lay the foundation for what is a predominantly digital industry that proved its resilience against the extraordinary circumstances we faced in 2020.”