In February 2021, Spotify arrived in Nigeria. Five years later, the way Nigerians listen, discover, and champion homegrown sounds has accelerated fast.
Here are a few of the trends that tell the story.
THE BIG PICTURE: LISTENING KEEPS COMPOUNDING
Nigeria’s year-on-year listening growth has climbed dramatically since launch, with triple-digit surges in the early years and continued momentum through 2025 with an average growth rate of 163.5%.
THE CULTURE ENGINE: AFROBEATS GROWTH LEADS THE WAY
Afrobeats is not just thriving, it is scaling at extraordinary speed. From 2021 to 2025, Afrobeats streams in Nigeria grew by +5,022%.
And the wider mix of sounds Nigerians love is expanding too:
- Amapiano: +10,330%
- Gospel/Praise: +5,499%
- Hip-hop/Rap: +3,020%
- R&B: +2,602%
LOCAL LANGUAGES, TURNED UP
Listening to music in Nigerian indigenous languages is rising sharply, both inside Nigeria and beyond, signalling a growing appetite for local-language storytelling and sound.
In Nigeria, indigenous-language listening saw major jumps including +554% in 2024 and +87% in 2025. Globally, indigenous-language listening growth also spiked, including +141% in 2024 and +41% in 2025.
THE VERY FIRST SONG EVER STREAMED IN NIGERIA
The first track streamed in Nigeria at launch was:
- “到此為止” [1]by Shiga Lin
A reminder that from the very first moment, listening in Nigeria has been borderless: curious, eclectic, and always open to discovery.
NIGERIA’S MOST-STREAMED ARTISTS OVER THE LAST FIVE YEARS
Across five years of listening in Nigeria, these are the artists who have dominated the speakers:
- Asake [2]
- Wizkid [3]
- Seyi Vibez [4]
- Burna Boy [5]
- Davido
NIGERIA’S MOST-STREAMED SONGS OVER THE LAST FIVE YEARS
And these are the tracks that Nigerians have returned to again and again:
- “Remember” [6]– Asake [2]
- “Dealer” [7] – Ayo Maff [8], Fireboy DML [9]
- “Awolowo” [10] – Fido [11]
- “Kese (Dance)” [12] – Wizkid [3]
- “Lonely At The Top” [13]– Asake [14]
- “Joy is Coming” [15]– Fido [11]
- “With You (feat. Omah Lay)” [16] – Davido, [17] Omah Lay [18]
- “Terminator” [19]– Asake [14]
- “MMS” [20] – Asake, [14] Wizkid
- “Doha” [22] – Seyi Vibez
MORE NIGERIAN ARTISTS TO DISCOVER
The number of Nigerian artists on Spotify has grown +158% since launch, reflecting an expanding pipeline of local creators reaching audiences at home and around the world.
FIVE YEARS, MILLIONS OF PLAYLISTS, AND SERIOUS LISTENING TIME
Over the past five years, Nigerians have created over 25million user-generated playlists on Spotify.
And listening time is massive: in 2025 alone, Nigeria clocked over 1.4million play hours on Spotify. Podcast listening is growing too, with over 59 billion total podcast hours streamed since launch.
WHAT NIGERIAN LISTENERS ARE DOING DIFFERENTLY
As the catalogue grows, so does discovery: in the most recent months the average listener in Nigeria streamed 150 different artists. Nigeria’s average listener age is 26, pointing to a young, digitally native audience shaping culture in real time
About Spotify
Spotify transformed music listening forever when we launched in 2008. Our mission is to unlock the potential of human creativity by giving a million creative artists the opportunity to live off their art and
billions of fans the opportunity to enjoy and be inspired by these creators. Everything we do is driven by our love for music and podcasts. Discover, manage, and share over 100 million tracks, including more than 5 million podcast titles, for free, or upgrade to Spotify Premium to access exclusive features for music including improved sound quality and an on-demand, offline, and ad-free music listening experience. Today, we are the world’s most popular audio streaming subscription service with a community of 713 million users, including 281 million Spotify Premium subscribers, in over 180 markets.
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