Afrobeats Soars: Spotify Reports 22% Global Surge

SPOTIFY’S 2025 Wrapped report shows Afrobeats continuing its meteoric rise, with global listenership up by 22% in the past year. The genre’s growth mirrors a broader explosion of interest in African music, powered heavily by engagement from Nigeria — where users logged over 1.3 billion hours on Spotify and increased their time spent on local music by an extraordinary 82%.

The platform recorded a 23% jump in daily streams and a 97% surge in podcast listening, signalling a rapidly expanding digital entertainment ecosystem. Spotify’s Head of Music for Sub-Saharan Africa, Phiona Okumu, said the data reflects a music scene that is “not just thriving, but leading,” as fans embrace both established stars and rising talents.

Across the continent, Afrobeats, Amapiano and Gen Z-driven street-pop dominated charts from Lagos to Nairobi to Johannesburg. A new wave of young, social-media-fuelled artists also broke into Spotify’s annual rankings for the first time, underscoring TikTok and Instagram’s growing influence on music discovery.

With Nigeria’s average listening age at just 25, the findings point to a vibrant, youth-powered future for African music — one that resonates far beyond the continent and continues to shape global sound.