Metal Bands Compared by Spotify Monthly Listeners, December 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 December are now in. More bands in our list of 361 artists saw decreases in monthly listenership (257) than those who saw increases (104), the second month in a row in which more bands saw decreases than the month before. Still, many bands saw significant rises in streaming numbers including, as usual, those with new albums out and those who released the first single from upcoming albums. Meanwhile, the biggest drops typically came from artists whose albums (or first singles, with no subsequent singles since) came out the month prior.
Some of the biggest gainers in the metal world over the past month included (sorted by chart position):
- Porcupine Tree (35.59%)
- Northlane (31.43%)
- Turbonegro (30.07%)
- Annihilator (20.30%)
- Converge (48.99%)
- Code Orange (24.44%)
- Brand of Sacrifice (27.42%)
- Nekrogoblikon (33.50%)
- Sion (80.15%)
- Cynic (40.69%)
- Aephanemer (84.59%)
- Moon Tooth (27.88%)
- Venom Prison (73.78%)
- The Red Chord (30.05%)
Artists who saw the biggest drops (sorted by chart position):
- Misfits (-25.96%)
- Knocked Loose (-24.12%)
- Merciful Fate (-20.14%)
- The Agonist (-23.82%)
- Rivers of Nihil (-22.98%)
- Wednesday 13 (-34.71%)
- Pig Destroyer (-25.09%)
- Dying Wish (-28.27%)
- Nothgard (-35.40%)
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.
