Vevo, the leading music video network, has released its annual charts highlighting the artists and videos that have gained the highest viewing figures in 2023… and it is a Latin American reggaeton star who dominates globally and in the U.S. – though fails to figure in the British charts at all.
Karol G, who rose to fame in her native Colombia as a 14-year-old on that country’s spinoff of The X Factor in 2005, is the network’s top artist of the year, with a massive 4.7 billion views of her music videos globally – more than half the population of the entire planet.
The video for “TQG”, her collaboration with Shakira, was watched 879.6 million times around the world and the singles “Mi Ex Tenía Razón” and “Mientras Me Curo Del Cora” also figure in fourth and fifth places in the chart, with a combined 444.7 million views between them.
Despite her massive appeal globally (including in the U.S., where she topped the Billboard album chart with her fourth album, Mañana Será Bonito, and embarked on her first U.S. stadium tour this summer) the reggaeton star fails to figure in the British charts at all, with UK audiences choosing instead to watch artists including Miley Cyrus, Rihanna, Beyoncé and Calvin Harris.
Reggaeton star Karol G dominates Vevo's global charts.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, despite Karol G’s dominance worldwide, Taylor Swift tops both Vevo’s domestic US and UK charts. The singer has enjoyed the most successful period of her career, with the record-breaking Eras world tour bringing in over $1 billion and the film adaptation of the tour reportedly netting her another $250 million in sales, making it the highest-grossing concert film of all time. She was also recently named Time magazine’s Person of the Year.
According to Vevo’s figures, Swift is the “Most Watched Artist” across both territories, racking up a combined 748.4 million views. The network also revealed that after the release of 1989 (Taylor’s Version) on October 27, viewership of her catalogue saw a 182% lift in UK daily views the very same day.
Taylor Swift is the most watched music artist across the UK and US for 2023.
Also showing strongly in the British video charts are Eminem with 73.9 million views and Lewis Capaldi with 60.9 million views. The figures for Capaldi come after a difficult year for the Scottish singer. Although he achieved two #1 singles in the British charts, with “Pointless” in January and “Wish You the Best” in April, in the summer he announced that he was taking an indefinite break from music to concentrate on his mental health. His set at Glastonbury in June was marked by an emotional singalong from the crowd, after an episode of his Tourette’s syndrome saw him struggle to continue.
In the US, Toosii’s February 2023 single “Favorite Song” was viewed 101.8 million times and tops Vevo’s video charts for the territory, with Miley Cyrus’s “Flowers” running a close second with 97.9 million views, ahead of Karol G and Shakira’s “TQG” with 84.1 million views.
Despite a difficult year, Lewis Capaldi figures strongly in the British video charts.
“Vevo’s annual rankings show us the power and reach of visual storytelling for artists, as well as which music videos resonated with audiences the most this year,” said Dot Levine, Senior Vice President, Vevo London.
She also acknowledges the apparent gulf between the UK and global charts, noting: “This year's list features a mix of artists, both new and established, across various genres, including Electronic, Hip-Hop and Pop, as well as international sounds, like Afrobeats and Latin.”
