Taylor Swift named best-selling artist of the year for sixth time

Taylor Swift was 2025’s best-selling global artist of the year, the IFPI said on Wednesday, marking the sixth time she won the title from the organization that represents the recorded music industry.

The award follows the success of the megastar’s latest album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” which according to Billboard, sold more copies in its first week than any other album in the modern era. Billboard cited data from Luminate.

Swift saw worldwide engagement across streaming, physical and digital formats with the release of “The Life of a Showgirl” and the documentary of her tour “The End of an Era”, IFPI said.

She was first named IFPI global recording artist of the year in 2014 and then in 2019 and from 2022 to 2024.

Swift has now won the award as many times as all other artists combined over the past ten years, which reflects both her creative consistency and the long-term global strategies supporting her releases, the IFPI said in a statement.

The award is calculated by looking at an artist’s or group’s worldwide sales across streaming, download and physical music formats during the calendar year and covers their entire body of work, according to the organisation.

K-pop group Stray Kids took the second spot for 2025 while Canadian rapper Drake took the third place.