Overall U.S. on-demand streams climbed 43 percent in 2017 to 618.03 billion.
Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee's “Despacito” dominated the streaming world in 2017, and ranks as the most streamed song of the year. The track, which was enhanced by a remix featuring Justin Bieber, earned a total of 1.322 billion on-demand streams (both audio and video streams combined) in the U.S., according to Nielsen Music. In a distant second place is Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You,” with 999.69 million streams. (See charts, below.)
Nielsen Music’s 2017 tracking year ran from Dec. 30, 2016 through Dec. 28, 2017. Numbers in this story are rounded. Nielsen Music began electronically tracking music sales and data in 1991.
The top 10 streamed songs were dominated by hip-hop, as a total of seven titles in the genre populate the year-end top 10. Among the top 10, the only non-rap titles are “Despacito,” “Shape of You” and Bruno Mars’ “That’s What I Like” (at No. 7).
