- “Someone You Loved” by Lewis Capaldi is first with over 3 billion plays between Spotify and YouTube
- Late XXXTentacion’s “SAD!” comes in second by a whisker
- “Happier” by Marshmello and Bastille is third
“Someone You Loved” by Lewis Capaldi is the most popular break up song of the last five years, a new study reveals.
The study, conducted by Learn Divorce Law, analyzed a little under 100 songs that can be defined “break up songs” from 2018 to 2023 and summed their Spotify streams and YouTube views to discover which one was the most popular.
Lewis Capaldi’s hit song from 2018 “Someone You Loved” comes in first. The song peaked at number one on the UK Singles Chart and became Capaldi’s first number one single, spending seven consecutive weeks atop the chart and was the best-selling single of 2019 in the UK. With 2,643,286,380 streams on Spotify alone, the highest on the list, and 588,750,389 YouTube views, “Someone You Loved” totals 3,232,036,769 plays across the two platforms.
In second comes “SAD!” by late American rapper XXXTentacion, released in 2018 along with the album “?”, the last one before the singer’s death in June of the same year. The song has the third highest Spotify streams at 1,971,683,487 and the second highest YouTube views at 1,200,696,026 for a total of 3,172,379,513 plays.
“Happier” by Marshmello and Bastille comes in third, with 1,802,089,675 Spotify streams and 1,051,052,327 YouTube views for a total of 2,853,142,002 plays. The song was released in 2018.
Further down on the list, “Don’t Start Now” by Dua Lipa is fourth. The song, released in 2020 is one of the most popular songs of the year, quickly accumulating 2,143,417,922 streams on Spotify, the second highest on the list, and 636,668,506 views on YouTube for its official video. The total is 2,780,086,428 plays.
The top five closes with “Kill This Love” by Korean girl group Blackpink, who have the fewest Spotify streams in the top ten at 664,110,420, but have the highest count of YouTube views, surpassing 1.7 billion, for a total of 2,401,799,832.
| Top 10 most popular break-up songs of the last five years | |||||
| Song name | Artist | Spotify streams | YouTube views | Sum | |
| 1 | Someone You Loved | Lewis Capaldi | 2,643,286,380 | 588,750,389 | 3,232,036,769 |
| 2 | SAD! | XXXTentacion | 1,971,683,487 | 1,200,696,026 | 3,172,379,513 |
| 3 | Happier | Marshmello and Bastille | 1,802,089,675 | 1,051,052,327 | 2,853,142,002 |
| 4 | Don’t Start Now | Dua Lipa | 2,143,417,922 | 636,668,506 | 2,780,086,428 |
| 5 | Kill This Love | Blackpink | 664,110,420 | 1,737,689,412 | 2,401,799,832 |
| 6 | Without Me | Halsey | 1,672,387,505 | 722,593,595 | 2,394,981,100 |
| 7 | thank u, next | Ariana Grande | 1,637,794,578 | 750,347,927 | 2,388,142,505 |
| 8 | when the party’s over | Billie Eilish | 1,482,614,893 | 846,581,518 | 2,329,196,411 |
| 9 | no tears left to cry | Ariana Grande | 1,182,952,776 | 1,133,575,586 | 2,316,528,362 |
| 10 | good 4 u | Olivia Rodrigo | 1,739,123,601 | 420,106,282 | 2,159,229,883 |
A spokesperson for Learn Divorce Law commented on the findings: “Break up songs have been one of the pillars of popular music for the longest time, and we could confidently say that some of the most popular songs of the last decade are about broken hearts.”
“This list highlights the most popular of the last five years, and most of these are also among the most popular songs of the year they were released in, “Someone You Loved” being a perfect example of this.”
Credit to https://learndivorcelaw.com/ who commissioned the above survey
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