Spotify Map Reveals 2025’s Highest Earning Songs In 73 Countries

On The Table Read Magazine, “the best arts and entertainment magazine UK“, new 2025 Spotify map reveals which homegrown song made the most money in 73 countries — from The Weeknd’s $20M Canadian anthem to hyper-local Indonesian and Indian tracks that owe 90%+ of their earnings to fans back home — proving even the biggest national hits barely crack eight figures while legacy classics quietly cash millions every year.

As a growing “Death to Spotify” boycott gathers momentum in November 2025 — with independent artists and fans protesting the platform’s low royalties and algorithmic gatekeeping — one question has never felt more urgent: who is actually getting paid, and how much?

A new analysis by TradingPlatforms, using a new report that highlights Spotify’s most-streamed (and most lucrative) songs by local artists around the world, has mapped the single most-streamed song by a local artist in 73 countries and calculated the estimated revenue each track has generated for its creators. The results lay bare the staggering gap between global superstars and even the biggest domestic heroes, while highlighting how little of the money often stays “at home.”

The Global Heavyweights That Still Rule Their Own Backyards

Some songs are so massive they dominate both the world stage and their country of origin. Using Spotify’s reported per-stream payout range of $0.003–$0.005 (midpoint $0.004), here are the ten highest-earning local tracks of all time:

The Weeknd – Blinding Lights (Canada) – ~$20.26 million

Abel Tesfaye, born in Toronto to Ethiopian immigrant parents, released “Blinding Lights” in 2019 as part of After Hours. It became the first song in Spotify history to cross 4 billion streams (now over 5 billion) and spent 90 weeks in the global Top 10. In Canada it’s untouchable: no other Canadian artist even comes close on the all-time chart.

Lewis Capaldi – Someone You Loved (United Kingdom) – ~$16.32 million

The 2018 piano ballad from the Scottish singer-songwriter’s debut album turned Capaldi into a global star virtually overnight. Raw, tear-stained, and shared relentlessly on TikTok before TikTok even leaned into sad music, it held the UK #1 spot for seven weeks and still dominates British all-time charts six years later.

Vance Joy – Riptide (Australia) – ~$13.27 million

Melbourne folk-pop singer James Keogh broke through in 2013 with this ukulele-driven indie anthem. “Riptide” was everywhere: triple j radio, Triple J Hottest 100 (#1 in 2013), and every Australian house party for half a decade. More than ten years later it remains the most-streamed Australian song of all time on Spotify.

Hozier – Take Me To Church (Ireland) – ~$12.83 million

Released in 2013 by Wicklow’s Andrew Hozier-Byrne, the gospel-blues protest against institutional homophobia exploded globally, but in Ireland it became a generational marker. It’s still the only song by an Irish artist to surpass three billion streams and has never left the Irish Top 200 since release.

Avicii – Wake Me Up (Sweden) – ~$11.50 million

When Tim Bergling dropped this bluegrass-house hybrid in 2013, it confused and then conquered the world. In Sweden it’s sacred: the biggest domestic streaming song ever from the biggest electronic artist the country ever produced. Avicii’s tragic death in 2018 only deepened its emotional grip at home.

J. Cole – No Role Modelz (United States) – ~$10.81 million

Taken from 2014’s 2014 Forest Hills Drive, this reflective track sampling Project Pat blew up years after release thanks to TikTok and NBA highlight reels. In the U.S., where the all-time chart is brutally competitive, it’s the single highest-streamed song by an American-born lead artist that isn’t pop or holiday-related (44% of its streams still come from the States).

Alan Walker – Faded (Norway) – ~$9.03 million

Then-18-year-old Bergen producer Alan Walker uploaded the vocal version of his instrumental “Fade” in late 2015. It became the de facto Norwegian national anthem of the streaming era, kept alive by gaming montages and every teenager’s Spotify playlist for half a decade.

Jimin (BTS) – Who (South Korea) – ~$8.16 million in just ~16 months

Released in July 2024 as the lead single from Jimin’s second solo album MUSE, “Who” is the fastest song in history to reach #1 on Spotify Global and the highest-earning domestic track Korea has ever had. It’s also the only 2020s release in the global top 10 highest-earning local songs.

FloyyMenor ft. Cris MJ – Gata Only (Chile) – ~$7.26 million

This 2024 reggaeton-perreo monster became the biggest Latin American viral hit of the year, spending months at #1 across Spanish-speaking countries. In Chile it obliterated every local record and turned 20-year-old FloyyMenor into a household name overnight.

Lost Frequencies ft. Calum Scott – Where Are You Now (Belgium) – ~$6.46 million

Belgian deep-house producer Felix De Laet struck gold in 2021 when this track went viral on TikTok. For a country that rarely produces global pop hits, “Where Are You Now” becoming Belgium’s most-streamed song ever felt like winning the World Cup.

The Hyper-Local Kings & Queens

Feby Putri – Runtuh (feat. Fiersa Besari) (Indonesia)

A heartbreaking 2021 indie-folk duet that captured the mood of a nation in pandemic lockdown. 92.5% of its $2.67 million in revenue comes from Indonesian listeners who still play it daily.

Arijit Singh – Tujhe Kitna Chahne Lage (from Kabir Singh) (India)

The ultimate Bollywood heartbreak ballad of 2019. Arijit, India’s streaming king, has dozens of huge songs, but this one from the film Kabir Singh still reigns supreme on India’s all-time chart with 85.9% domestic streams.

2025’s Rocket Ships (already millionaires in months)

Bad Bunny – DtMF, BAILE INoLVIDABLE, NUEVAYoL, etc. (Puerto Rico)

Benito has six 2025-released songs over 500 million streams already, with “DtMF” at 1.11 billion. No artist in history has dominated a single calendar year this hard.

HUNTR/X – Golden (2025 breakout)

Mysterious alt-pop/act that exploded out of nowhere in early 2025; “Golden” hit 781 million streams in under six months purely on playlist and TikTok momentum.

Jin (BTS) – Don’t Say You Love Me (2025)

Released shortly after Jin’s military discharge, the track became a global event, racking up 542 million streams and proving ARMY’s spending power remains unmatched.

Evergreen Gold: How Songs from the 60s, 70s and Beyond Still Pay Like New Releases

Some of the biggest paychecks on Spotify aren’t going to today’s superstars; they’re still flowing to tracks recorded decades before the platform even existed.

Thanks to playlist culture, movie syncs, TikTok virality, and annual holiday spikes, catalog classics have become some of the most reliable money-makers in the streaming era:

Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody (1975)
2.93 billion streams → ~$11.74 million

Revived forever by the 1992 Wayne’s World scene and the 2018 biopic, the song now gets a new life every time a teenager discovers Freddie Mercury’s vocal acrobatics or uses the operatic section in a meme. It still pulls 1.5–2 million streams daily, fifty years after release.

The Police – Every Breath You Take (1983)
2.95 billion streams → ~$11.78 million

Sting’s brooding masterpiece (often mistaken for a love song) is a playlist staple on every “chill,” “yacht rock,” and “80s classics” curation. It’s one of the rare pre-2000 tracks that consistently ranks in Spotify’s global Top 200.

Creedence Clearwater Revival – Fortunate Son (1969)
1.76 billion streams → ~$7.06 million

The ultimate anti-war/Vietnam protest anthem became a Gen-Z protest soundtrack all over again—used in countless political videos, gaming montages, and movies. It regularly spikes whenever U.S. politics heats up.

Brenda Lee – Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree (1958)
1.3 billion streams → ~$5.20 million (and climbing fast every November)

Recorded when Brenda Lee was just 13 years old, the song now earns the majority of its annual streams—and therefore most of its money—between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. In December alone it frequently surpasses 10 million daily streams, proving Christmas music is one of the last true recurring-revenue machines left in the industry.

These pre-streaming-era songs demonstrate a quiet truth in the middle of the 2025 boycott debates: for legacy artists (or more often their estates and labels), Spotify isn’t just exposure; it’s a pension plan. A single well-placed catalog track can still generate six- or seven-figure annual income with zero promotion, while most new independent releases fight to earn a few thousand dollars total.

In an era where the loudest complaint is that streaming doesn’t pay enough, these vintage hits are the exception that keeps major-label back catalogs extremely profitable.

These songs and artists aren’t just numbers on a chart; they’re cultural monuments in their home countries. Yet even the biggest of them highlight the central irony of the streaming era: the “local heroes” who define a nation’s soundtrack are still, in most cases, barely scraping eight-figure Spotify earnings after a decade of dominance, while the platform itself takes home billions.

In the middle of the 2025 “Death to Spotify” protests, that contrast has never felt sharper.