Taylor Swift becomes the most-streamed artist in the US ahead of Spotify Wrapped end-of-year release - as Morgan Wallen's 'Last Night' becomes the most-played hit

Taylor Swift has taken out the top spot as the most-streamed artist in the US on Spotify's annual Wrapped campaign while achieving more than 26.1 billion plays worldwide. 

Her album Midnights became the second most streamed album globally, with Bad Bunny's Un Verano Sin Ti taking the top spot. 

Although Swift was the most-streamed artist in the US overall, it was Morgan Wallen's song Last Night that reigned the country's chart for the most streamed song. 

The singer's third album One Thing At A Time also took the crown for the most streamed album in the US. 

In honor of Swift’s latest achievement, Spotify unveiled 21 puzzle pieces on billboards around the globe, teasing her accomplishment in the 48-hour lead-up to Wrapped’s launch on November 29.

The easter eggs, something Swift is famous for doing while promoting her songs and albums, culminated in a video that contains multiple elements from the Swift-verse, including the friendship bracelets fans made for her concerts, a street sign of Cornelia Street and numerous references to her album Reputation. 

Once Swift's new milestone was announced, fans streaming her music on the streaming giant saw the song progress bar changing colors to reflect the corresponding era color and turning into a sparkle. 

Some of Swift’s biggest fans also received a thank you message from her and a special share card. 

She is closely followed Bad Bunny, The Weeknd and Drake in the Top Global Artists chart. 

Swift's songs, Cruel Summer and Anti-Hero, also made the list of Top 10 songs streamed globally.

This year has been another very successful year for the pop superstar, estimated to have generated nearly $5bn in consumer spending alone in the US leg of her Eras Tour.

She was also titled as Artist of the Year by Apple Music.  

Her boyfriend and football star, Travis Kelce podcast 'New Heights', which he hosts in collaboration with his brother Jason became Spotify's No. 1 sports podcast in the world. 

In the US, Wallen ranks third in the list of most-streamed artists and has had a stellar year. 

At this year's Billboard Music Awards, Wallen took home a staggering 11 trophies, more than any other artist which included wins for Top Hot 100 Artist, Top Streaming Songs Artist, Top Country Artist, Top Country Male Artist, Top Country Touring Artist. 

He also ranked in the top Billboard 200 album and Billboard Hot 100 song of the year. 

Wallen's expansive One Night At A Time concert also became this year's highest-grossing country tour - earning  $230 million. 

Spotify Wrapped 2023 sums up how 574M people around the world listened to the streaming giant this year. 

Earlier today, Spotify dropped a massive hint that this year's Spotify Wrapped might be dropping soon. 

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), the streaming giant wrote: 'Wrapped is... close. So close.' 

The once-a-year Wrapped feature is known to lay out just how cool or cringy your music choices have been this year and reveal what you've had on loop in the last 12 months. 

On social media, speculation about the exact release date began to run rampant.

While many people suggested that the feature may drop on Friday, others have claimed that it could be released as early as today (which they were right about). 

'Sounds like either today (wednesday) or friday', speculated one fan in a post on X. 

'Come on Spotify wrapped I know you're gonna drop today', wrote another.

Some fans had begun to dig into the history of Spotify Wrapped to try and find any trends in the release date.

For the last three years, Spotify Wrapped has been released on a Wednesday afternoon, suggesting that there was a high possibility it would be released later today.

Once it was released, users were able to open the Spotify app and were presented with an invitation to get right into your Wrapped report. 

Their annual Wrapped report was also present on the main homepage of the app. Listeners could see their top artists, genres, songs, podcasts and minutes listened. 

The giant also introduced two new AI-based features, Me in 2023 and Sound Town.

The Me in 2023 feature revealed one of 12 listening characters that best describes how the user listened to music on Spotify this year, including Alchemist, Shapeshifter and Robostic, and a detailed explanation of what each of those words meant.  

Sound Town matched listeners to a city based on their listening habits and shared artist affinity.