My name’s Aezi — you can also call me Edi. My interests span a few worlds: football (Manchester City), computer science, jewellery, and a long-running relationship with music over the past eight years — with Sonic playing a role when I was much younger.
This post isn’t really about me, though; it’s about who I predict will end up as my 20 most-streamed artists of 2026.
With that out of the way, let’s begin with 10 honourable mentions.
Honourable Mentions (30th - 21st)
30th Drake: Never really an artist I actively put on. A few great songs like Marvin’s Room, Hotline Bling, and Forever, but I don’t like much of his newer stuff — even my most-streamed “Drake” track is actually a Skepta interlude.
29th Lil Baby: Freestyle and Forget That (with Rylo Rodriguez) still get plays, but the similarity across a lot of his music gets tiring. Good artist, just past his peak for me.
28th Mariah Carey: Only two songs in rotation: Obsessed (Gucci Mane remix) and Stay Long, Love You (with Gunna). Decent streams, nothing more.
27th J Hus: I rate him highly, but I still haven’t found that one song I can loop endlessly. Most of my streams will probably come from Play Play (with Burna Boy).
26th Waka Flocka Flame: Pure energy. A handful of timeless hype tracks — Grove St. Party, No Hands, Tatted Up, Hard in Da Paint, Wasted (Remix), and I Don’t Really Care (with Trey Songz) — but outside of those, I don’t see heavy streaming.
25th Lil Durk: A few songs will stay in rotation: Career Day (with Polo G), No Label, Ghetto (Grew Up), Turn Up A Notch — but with no new releases on the horizon, it’s hard for him to push higher.
24th Kanye West: Still working through his discography. Only Last Call and Off The Grid are really in rotation right now, though he could sneak in later.
23rd Unknown T: I’m slowly moving away from drill, and my listening has narrowed to just a few tracks: Time Flies, Addicts (with M Huncho), Leave Dat Trap (with AJ Tracey), Homerton B, and No Forgiveness (with Nafe Smallz). Not enough range to break the top 20.
22nd Headie One: Could go either way. I’ve streamed his music a lot recently, but burnout is real, and I can’t loop his songs like I did in late 2022 and early 2023. Most of my plays come from: Only You Freestyle (with Drake), Try Me (with Skepta), I Could Rap, Broni, Blessings, I Won’t, PTSD, and Satisfy Me.
21st Sheff G: Depends heavily on what he drops next year and how much I keep looping Listen. Some drill-heavy tracks might work against him, but he’s close.