Bieber overtakes Bruno Mars as Spotify’s No. 1 artist

Justin Bieber Breaks Spotify Record With 138 Million Monthly Listeners

Justin Bieber has overtaken Bruno Mars to become the most-listened-to artist on Spotify globally, reaching a career-high 138 million monthly listeners as of May 2, 2026. The milestone caps a streaming surge that began after Bieber headlined Coachella in April, sending shockwaves through the platform’s charts without the release of any new music this year.kworb

From Coachella to the Top

The record traces directly to Bieber’s headlining set at Coachella on April 11, which triggered one of the largest post-performance streaming spikes in the festival’s history. According to Variety, the performance drove 21 of his songs into Spotify’s Global Top 200 — more than any other artist following a festival set — and his catalog surpassed 77 million streams in a single day. Luminate data reported by Rolling Stone showed that Bieber’s U.S. streams jumped 54 percent the day after the show, reaching 24.6 million, while Spotify told the outlet that his global streams surged 250 percent.variety

The Coachella set leaned on nostalgia, with Bieber revisiting early hits like “Baby” and “Beauty and a Beat” alongside a stripped-down laptop interlude featuring archival clips from his childhood. Variety’s Chris Willman described it as “Personal Time With Justin,” writing that “four years of avoiding public live performance have done nothing to put a ding in his charisma”.variety

A Catalog-Driven Climb

The streaming momentum carried well beyond Coachella weekend. By late April, Bieber had surpassed Ariana Grande for the second-most monthly listeners on Spotify, and by early May he had overtaken Bruno Mars, who held the top spot after becoming the first artist to surpass 150 million monthly listeners in 2025. As of May 3, kworb.net data showed Bieber at 138,019,688 monthly listeners, with Bruno Mars trailing at roughly 137 million.reddit

Enduring tracks such as “STAY,” “Sorry,” and “Love Yourself” have anchored his streaming numbers, while 13 of his songs simultaneously appeared on the U.K. Official Streaming Chart in late April. His record label, Def Jam, celebrated the milestone on Instagram, writing: “Justin Bieber just hit #1 on global Spotify — 138M monthly listeners and counting”.instagram

What Monthly Listeners Mean

Monthly listeners reflect unique users who have streamed at least one of an artist’s songs within a rolling 28-day window, making the metric one of the clearest real-time indicators of global popularity on the platform. Bieber’s achievement is notable not only for the number itself but for the fact that it was driven almost entirely by catalog plays and live performance momentum rather than a new release cycle — a rarity at the top of Spotify’s rankings.chartmasters