Wizkid hits 12 billion Spotify streams, breaks another record for African music

• Wizkid is being credited with a potential 12-billion Spotify streaming milestone, but independent tracking figures differ.

• One Dance, his collaboration with Drake and Kyla, is a major contributor to his streaming numbers.

• Essence, featuring Tems, helped strengthen Wizkid’s global reach after its international breakthrough and Justin Bieber remix.

Ten years after helping turn Drake’s One Dance into a global hit, Wizkid is still reaping the rewards of a song that refuses to leave people’s playlists. And that is only one part of the story.

The Nigerian superstar is being credited with surpassing 12 billion streams on Spotify across all credits, a milestone that would make him the first African artist to reach the mark. 

However, while the fan-run WizStatz account reported the achievement, Kworb’s Spotify tracker still had Wizkid below 12 billion (11,656,624,913) in its October 25, 2026, update. 

Across all credits means the total includes songs on which Wizkid is the lead artist and tracks where he appears as a featured performer. 

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According to the milestone timeline circulating among fans, he crossed 10 billion streams in January 2026 and 11 billion in May before reaching the 12-billion mark in October.

And yes, One Dance is doing some serious heavy lifting.

Released in 2016, Drake’s hit featuring Wizkid and British singer Kyla has become one of Spotify’s biggest songs, with more than 4.5 billion streams reported by independent trackers. It remains a major contributor to Wizkid’s streaming legacy, even though it is not his own lead single.

But if One Dance introduced many international listeners to Wizkid, Essence gave them another reason to stay.

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The smooth collaboration with Tems, released on Wizkid’s 2020 album Made in Lagos, became one of the defining Afrobeats records of its era. 

Its popularity grew further in 2021 when Justin Bieber joined the remix, taking the song to an even wider pop audience. Essence’s coverage of the song’s Billboard Hot 100 success captures just how far the record travelled.

Wizkid’s catalogue stretches well beyond those two global hits. From Ojuelegba, which helped draw international attention to his journey, to Joro and Come Closer featuring Drake, his music has travelled across different eras of Nigerian pop.

The milestone also reflects years of releases and collaborations that have helped bring Afrobeats to audiences beyond Africa. For a broader look at his streaming history, ChartMasters’ Wizkid artist page tracks his catalogue and career milestones.

Whether the 12-billion figure has been fully reached across all trackers or not, Wizkid’s streaming numbers underline the staying power of a catalogue that continues to find listeners years after some of its biggest records first dropped.