Burna Boy has once again cemented his position at the forefront of Nigeria’s global music ascent, topping Spotify’s 2025 list of most-exported Nigerian artists.
The ranking, part of the streaming platform’s annual Wrapped report, highlights the continued international pull of Nigerian music and the evolution of its cultural reach.
The list, dominated by familiar names, places Tems, Rema, Ayra Starr and Wizkid behind Burna Boy, showing how a handful of artists continue to shape the global perception of Afrobeats and its contemporary offshoots.
Though their stylistic approaches differ from Rema’s melodic pop-leaning Afrobeats to Tems’s atmospheric soul, their music travels widely, carried by streaming platforms and a growing international fan base.
Rema’s blockbuster collaboration “Calm Down,” featuring Selena Gomez, remained the most-exported Nigerian song for the third consecutive year. Its staying power, long after its chart peak, points to a phenomenon uncommon in today’s fast-cycling streaming world: a Nigerian hit embedded in global listening habits.
The track’s longevity suggests not only the durability of Rema’s sound, but also the degree to which Nigerian rhythms have become part of mainstream pop structures across several continents.
A data breakdown of Spotify’s user behaviours
While music remains the country’s most visible cultural export, Spotify’s data also reveals how Nigerians are turning to digital audio for reasons beyond entertainment.
- Podcast listening surged by 97%, and podcast creation grew by 48% in 2025.
Much of that activity, Spotify found, reflects a sustained national interest in spiritual and faith-led content. The platform’s most-streamed podcasts this year were grounded in themes of worship, motivation and personal reflection, suggesting that many Nigerians are engaging with digital audio as a source of community and guidance.
The broader picture of Nigeria’s listening habits reveals a population increasingly immersed in digital culture.
- Nigerians spent more than 1.3 billion hours on Spotify in 2025, a figure driven in part by rising enthusiasm for homegrown talent.
- Local music consumption rose 82% over the past year, and Afrobeats listening increased 22% globally evidence of the genre’s expanding footprint beyond traditional diasporic circles.
What you should know
Davido’s “With You,” featuring Omah Lay, emerged as the most-shared song on social platforms, marking the influence of viral audio and the ease with which tracks can migrate from streaming libraries to online trends. Daily streams grew 23%, affirming that music has become a routine part of daily life for Nigerian listeners.
Spotify also introduced a new metric this year, the “Listening Age,” finding that Nigeria’s average listener is 25 years old, a demographic that continues to shape global musical tastes.
“Nigeria’s 2025 Wrapped paints a picture of a music scene that is absolutely thriving,” said Phiona Okumu, Spotify’s head of music for Sub-Saharan Africa. “It’s incredible to see how fast Nigerians embrace fresh voices right alongside the legends.”
As Wrapped 2025 rolls out to users, listeners across the country can trace their role in defining a soundscape that now resonates far beyond Nigeria’s borders.
