Morgan Wallen, SZA and Kendrick Lamar have had the strongest year thus far in terms of U.S. album sales, according to Luminate‘s 2025 midyear report.
The report, which examines the health of the music industry from various data points, notes an uptick in U.S. total album consumption, increasing 3.9 percent to 558.9 million compared to 537.9 million last year. Wallen’s “I’m the Problem” leads U.S. top 10 albums with 2.562 million total album-equivalent consumption, followed by SZA‘s “SOS” (1.711 million), Lamar’s “GNX” (1.706 million), Bad Bunny’s “DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS” (1.650 million) and Sabrina Carpenter’s “Short n’ Sweet” (1.331 million).
Rounding out the top 10 include the Weeknd’s “Hurry Up Tomorrow,” Drake and PartyNextDoor’s “Some Sexy Songs 4 U,” Wallen’s “One Thing at a Time,” Lady Gaga’s “Mayhem” and Playboi Carti’s “Music.”
Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars have had the biggest song thus far this year on a global scale, topping the worldwide top 10 with “Die With a Smile” (1.920 billion on-demand audio streams). Mars comes in yet again at No. 2 with Rosé for their collaboration “APT.” (1.624 billion), followed by Billie Eilish’s “Birds of a Feather” (1.316 billion), Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s “Luther” (1.207 billion) and Bad Bunny’s “DtMF” (1.163 billion).
Streaming accounted for 92 percent of music consumption in the United States in early 2025. On the global front, on-demand audio song streams increased by 10.3 percent to 2.5 trillion compared to 2.3 trillion in the previous year.
Elsewhere, hip-hop and R&B outpaced other genres in the U.S. with the highest volume of on-demand audio streaming, leading with 171.1 billion. Behind it sits rock (123.3 billion), pop (83.3 billion), country (61.8 billion) and Latin (59.4 billion). Notably, rock had the highest growth compared to the same timeframe as last year, while Latin, country and Christian/gospel trailed behind it. Blues also had a bump in growth due to the “Sinners” soundtrack and the tangential activity of featured artists.
Luminate also looked at the appeal of music documentaries, noting that viewers tend to gravitate towards films that focus on legacy artists as “Becoming Led Zeppelin” rank at the top. Docs including “Avicii — I’m Tim,” “Sly Lives! (aka the Burden of Black Genius),” “Return of the King: The Fall and Rise of Elvis Presley” and “The Greatest Night in Pop” rank behind “Zeppelin” in the top five, while additional films including “Luther: Never Too Much” and “Beatles ’64” round out the top 10.
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From Variety US