The Year in Streaming Charts 2020: Roddy Ricch Rules & Country Rises
Four of 2020’s top 10 streaming weeks came from Roddy Ricch’s “The Box,” so it’s fitting that it’s No. 1 on Billboard’s year-end Streaming Songs chart for 2020. The hip-hop star also closes the year…
Four of 2020’s top 10 streaming weeks came from Roddy Ricch’s “The Box,” so it’s fitting that it’s No. 1 on Billboard’s year-end Streaming Songs chart for 2020. The hip-hop star also closes the year as the top Streaming Songs Artist.
Billboard’s year-end music recaps represent aggregated metrics for each artist, title, label and music contributor on the weekly charts dated Nov. 23, 2019, through Nov. 14, 2020. The rankings for Nielsen Music/MRC Data-based year-end recaps reflect equivalent album units, airplay, sales or streaming during the weeks that the titles appeared on a respective chart during the tracking year. Any activity registered before or after a title’s chart run isn’t considered in these rankings. That methodology detail, and the November-November time period, account for some of the difference between these lists and the calendar-year recaps that are independently compiled by Nielsen Music/MRC Data.
Explore All of Billboard’s 2020 Year-End Charts
Initially rising to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart dated Jan. 18, “The Box” eventually reigned for 11 weeks, stretching into spring as the year’s first properly viral hit. It concurrently ruled the weekly Streaming Songs chart for 13 weeks during the 2020 chart year, the longest leader of the year and tied for the fifth-longest reign in the ranking’s seven-year history.
All that was despite the lack of a music video until Feb. 28, a clip that nonetheless went on to accumulate well over 200 million global views as of press time. Its streaming success mimicked that of multiple chart wins in 2020: “The Box” initially took off on TikTok.
Roddy Ricch himself doesn’t just have the No. 1 on the year-end Streaming Songs chart; he’s also the No. 1 Streaming Songs Artist of the year, a feat supported not only by the success of “The Box,” but also the 10-week rule of DaBaby’s “Rockstar” on the weekly Streaming Songs list, on which Roddy Ricch is a featured artist. “Rockstar” ends up No. 4 on the year-end songs list, making Roddy Ricch the only act with two entries in the year-end top five.
DaBaby concludes the year as the No. 2 Streaming Songs Artist, benefited by the success of “Rockstar,” as well as his featured spot on Jack Harlow’s “Whats Poppin,” the year-end No. 6 track on the songs ranking. Lil Baby, Juice WRLD and Drake round out the year-end top five Streaming Songs Artists, while Post Malone, last year’s No. 1, ends at No. 8.
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The year-end Streaming Songs list’s top five following “The Box” is Future’s “Life Is Good” featuring Drake, The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights,” DaBaby’s “Rockstar” featuring Roddy Ricch, and Post Malone’s “Circles.” “Life Is Good” in particular boasted impressive longevity; despite its No. 2 rank, it never climbed higher than No. 2 on the weekly chart as well. It spent its first eight weeks at No. 2 on Streaming Songs and has remained on the chart every week since, never falling lower than No. 33 during the 2020 chart year.
While hip-hop largely continued to reign on Streaming Songs in 2020, the other major story on the chart this year was the continued rise of the country genre on streaming services after multiple years where country artists barely appeared at all.
The year-end, 75-position Streaming Songs chart sees four non-holiday country titles reach the tally, after just one (Blanco Brown’s “The Git Up”) cracked the year-end list in 2019. In fact, four non-holiday country songs (plus a fifth via Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”) is the most on the year-end Streaming Songs survey in its history, topping 2018’s two-song total, and comes after multiple years in which the year-end chart had no country songs whatsoever (2014-16).
Gabby Barrett’s “I Hope” leads that group at No. 29, while the other songs on the 2020 tally include Dan + Shay and Justin Bieber’s “10,000 Hours” (No. 52), Maren Morris’ “The Bones” (No. 61) and Morgan Wallen’s “Chasin’ You” (No. 74).