Metal Bands Compared by Spotify Monthly Listeners, September 2021 Rankings
Every month we take a look at Spotify’s ‘monthly listeners’ counts for several hundred metal bands and compare them side by side to gauge their relative popularity at any given moment. For more on why we’re doing this column and the methodology behind it, read this.
The numbers for September are in. Almost exactly half (176) of the 350 artists involved our analysis experienced a rise in monthly listeners month over month from August, an improvement from July and August when fewer artists showed such increases. In general, the percentage increase in listeners among bands who gained was higher than the percentage lost among bands who saw a decrease, indicating that the platform is still growing among metal fans.
Some of the biggest gainers in the metal world over the past month included:
- Fever 333 (130.07%)
- Hammerfall (36.09%)
- Blind Guardian (21.76%)
- Soilwork (24.63%)
- Lorna Shore (31.42%)
- Deafheaven (48.34%)
- Between the Buried and Me (21.43%)
- Brand of Sacrifice (21.80%)
- Death Angel (28.82%)
- Carcass (26.34%)
- Scar Symmetry (22.74%)
- Lingua Ignota (116.36%)
- Rivers of Nihil (23.96%)
- Be’lakor (30.96%)
- Omnium Gatherum (33.33%)
- Spirit Adrift (44.84%)
Artists who saw the biggest drops:
- Beneath the Massacre (-19.93%)
- Rhapsody of Fire (-19.59%)
- At the Gates (-17.95%)
- Born of Osiris (-17.36%)
- Gwar (-17.75%)
- Insomnium (-16.16%)
These rankings, it must be stated, are not comprehensive: the bands included on our list were chosen manually, and it is absolutely the case that many bands aren’t included (please email [email protected] if you’d like to see them added next month). For that reason, we haven’t numbered these rankings: to do so would disingenuously give the appearance this is a comprehensive list, which it is not.
You can view the most recent chart numbers, along with the entire history of these charts, in the embed below or here.
