Taylor Swift confirmed by IFPI as biggest-selling Global Recording Artist of the Year

IFPI, the organisation that represents the recorded music industry worldwide, has announced Taylor Swift as the winner of IFPI’s 2023 Global Recording Artist of the Year Award.

The unique award is calculated according to an artist’s or group’s worldwide sales across streaming, download and physical music formats during the calendar year and covers their entire body of work. The award is presented to the artist finishing #1 in IFPI’s Global Artist Chart, which was also released today.

This year marks the 11th year of the IFPI Global Recording Artist of the Year Award, with Taylor Swift having topped the chart more than any other artist during that time (her 2023 win following successes in 2014, 2019 and 2022). This latest win follows a stellar year in which the artist has seen three albums (Midnights and the Taylor’s Version releases of the Speak Now and 1989 albums) top the charts, and the record-breaking Eras tour lift engagement with her entire catalogue on streaming platforms around the world. This phenomenon was demonstrated by the resurgence of the track Cruel Summer, initially released in 2019 but which topped charts around the world four years later.

K-Pop stars SEVENTEEN and Stray Kids placed second and third respectively in the chart in a record year for Korean artists. Four K-Pop acts featured in the Top 10 with TOMORROW X TOGETHER AT #7 and NewJeans at #8, while IVE and NCT Dream also made their first appearances in the IFPI Global Artist Chart Top 20, at #12 and #15 respectively.

US country star Morgan Wallen (#6) also made his first ever appearance in the IFPI Global Artist chart following the huge success of 2023 release One Thing At A Time, and Lana Del Rey (#10) also entered the Top 10 for the first time, beating her previous high of #17 in 2014. Outside the Top 10, Japanese stars King & Prince and US artists SZA and Zach Bryan also made their IFPI Global Artist Chart debuts. All in all, eight of the Top 20 artists in 2023 were making their first appearance in the chart.

Lewis Morrison, Director of Charts and Certifications at IFPI said: “We are immensely proud to award the IFPI Global Recording Artist of the Year Award to Taylor Swift for the fourth time, as she continues to redefine the limits of global success. Taylor is a singular talent and her commitment to her craft and her fans is truly phenomenal.

“It is also fantastic to see so many artists entering the chart for the first time, and the return of established acts years after their last appearance. As the global recorded music landscape shifts and new opportunities emerge, record companies continue their work to build global, long-term careers for their artists.”