When Spotify flipped the switch in Nigeria in February 2021, nobody quite knew what to expect. Would Nigerians take to it? What would they play first? Five years on, the answers are in — and they tell a story far bigger than anyone anticipated.
The first song ever streamed in Nigeria on the platform was “到此為止” by Hong Kong singer Shiga Lin. It was an quietly telling moment. Before a single Afrobeats record had been queued, a Nigerian listener had reached across the world for something entirely unexpected. That instinct — curious, borderless, hungry — would go on to define the Nigerian listener.
The Numbers Don’t Lie
Growth since launch has been nothing short of dramatic. Year-on-year listening figures surged by triple digits in the early years, and the momentum has never really let up. Averaged across five years, Nigeria’s listening growth rate sits at 163.5 per cent — a compounding cultural wave that shows no signs of cresting.
The artist roster has expanded in lockstep. The number of Nigerian artists on Spotify has grown by 158 per cent since 2021, meaning more creators are finding audiences not just at home, but around the world.
Afrobeats and the Genres That Caught Fire
If one genre tells the story of these five years, it is Afrobeats. Streams of the genre inside Nigeria grew by over 5,000 per cent between 2021 and 2025 — a figure that captures both the explosion of local production and the appetite of a generation that has made the sound its own.
But Afrobeats did not rise alone. Amapiano, which arrived in Nigeria as a South African import and quickly became a cultural fixture, recorded a staggering 10,330 per cent increase in streams over the same period. Gospel and praise music climbed 5,499 per cent. Hip-hop and rap grew by 3,020 per cent. R&B followed at 2,602 per cent. Across the board, Nigerian listeners have been diversifying their tastes even as they deepen their love for what is homegrown.
The Language Shift
One of the more significant — and underreported — trends of the past five years is the rise of indigenous-language music. Listening to songs in Nigerian local languages grew by 554 per cent inside the country in 2024 alone, followed by a further 87 per cent in 2025. The shift is not confined to Nigeria either. Globally, indigenous-language listening linked to Nigerian music jumped 141 per cent in 2024 and 41 per cent in 2025, suggesting that the world is increasingly willing to meet Nigerian artists on their own linguistic terms.
The Artists and Songs That Defined the Era
Five years of listening data produces its own kind of verdict on who captured the culture. Asake tops the list of Nigeria’s most-streamed artists, followed by Wizkid, Seyi Vibez, Burna Boy, and Davido — a lineup that reflects both established global stars and the newer voices who have broken through in recent years.
The most-streamed songs tell a similar story. Asake’s “Remember” leads, followed by “Dealer” by Ayo Maff and Fireboy DML, and “Awolowo” by Fido. Wizkid’s “Kese (Dance)” comes in fourth, with Asake’s “Lonely At The Top” rounding out the top five. The full top ten is a reminder of how quickly new names can embed themselves in the national consciousness — and how certain records simply refuse to leave rotation.
25 Million Playlists and a Generation Curating Its Own Soundtrack
The scale of engagement goes beyond passive listening. Over the past five years, Nigerians have created more than 25 million user-generated playlists on Spotify — a figure that speaks to an audience that does not just consume music but actively organises and shares it. In 2025 alone, Nigerian listeners clocked over 1.4 billion play hours on the platform. Podcast listening has also taken hold, with over 59 billion total podcast hours streamed since launch.
Perhaps the most telling detail is this: the average Nigerian listener on Spotify is 26 years old, and in recent months has streamed music from 150 different artists. That is not passive listening. That is a young, digitally native generation actively building its own cultural map — reaching outward even as it pulls its own sounds toward the centre.
Five years in, Spotify in Nigeria is less a streaming service than a mirror. What it reflects is a country whose musical identity is expanding faster than anyone thought possible, and a generation determined to soundtrack every moment of it.
