Benson Boone & Taylor Swift Are Worldwide 2024 Chart-Toppers: The Year In Billboard Global Charts

For the second straight year, Taylor Swift finishes atop the year-end Billboard Global 200 Artists and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. Artists charts. With 67 entries in the 2024 tracking period (Oct. 28, 2023, through Oct. 19, 2024-dated charts) on the former chart and 66 on the latter, she doubles the nearest totals for both.

In just the third week of the chart year, songs from 1989 (Taylor’s Version) impacted the global lists, amassing 19 debuts on both tallies. About six months later, the release of The Tortured Poets Department spurred 31 more new entries, including “Fortnight,” featuring Post Malone, which arrived atop each weekly chart.

But Swift’s biggest global hit of 2024 was from neither album. “Cruel Summer,” from 2019’s Lover, hit No. 1 on the Global 200 in November 2023 and ends the year at No. 4 on both annual recaps. The song’s years-late success blossomed out of buzz from its opening-slot performance at Swift’s record-busting The Eras Tour, which launched in March 2023.

While it’s perhaps an anomaly for a four-year-old song to hit No. 1, it also speaks to Swift’s extremely wide-ranging success and reach over the last two years, amid several other album releases. In addition to the three albums already named, Swift’s 2024 global hit roster includes tracks from Folklore, Midnights, Red (Taylor’s Version), and more.

Billboard’s year-end music recaps represent aggregated metrics for each artist, title, label and music contributor on the weekly charts dated Oct. 28, 2023, through Oct. 19, 2024. The rankings for Luminate-based 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 details, and the October-October time period, account for some of the difference between these lists and the calendar-year recaps that are independently compiled by Luminate.

The rest of the top five for both global charts’ artist rankings include the same line-up of artists, in slightly different order. Sabrina Carpenter and Billie Eilish are next up, with Carpenter at No. 2 for the Global 200 and Eilish in the runner-up spot for Global Excl. U.S. On both lists, Ariana Grande and The Weeknd follow at Nos. 4-5, respectively.

Carpenter, Eilish and Grande all scored No. 1 global hits in 2024 from new albums, led by the former’s “Espresso,” which topped the Global 200 for eight weeks. Eilish got there with “Birds of a Feather” and Grande logged two leaders with “Yes, And?” and “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait For Your Love).”

The Weeknd’s top five placement is largely fueled by older hits like “Blinding Lights” and “Starboy.” His more recent releases include “One of the Girls,” featuring Jennie and Lily Rose Depp, and “Popular,” with Playboi Carti and Madonna, both from his first major TV vehicle, 2023’s The Idol. He also debuted with “Dancing in the Flames” and “Timeless” in the final weeks of the chart year, both from his upcoming album Hurry Up Tomorrow.

The Weeknd is the only artist to appear in the top five – or top 10 – of both lists for all four year-end global recaps (the Global 200 and Global Excl. U.S. charts launched in late 2020).

Carpenter and Swift land “Espresso” and “Cruel Summer” in the top five of both tallies’ songs year-end charts, but a different newcomer leads both lists. Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things” is No. 1 on the year-end Global 200 chart and the year-end Global Excl. U.S. ranking.

“Beautiful Things” debuted on the Feb. 3-dated edition of each chart, rising 13-6-1 on the Global 200 and 37-14-2-1 on Global Excl. U.S. chart. Ultimately, it spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the former list and eight on the latter. It’s the longest-running chart-topper on both lists for the 2024 tracking period, tied only by “Espresso” on Global Excl. U.S.

Boone’s breakout hit remained in the top 10 on Global Excl. U.S. for the duration of the chart year, though it dipped out on two occasions on the Global 200 – once because of Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department clogging the top of the chart, and once knocked out by The Weeknd’s first new solo single in years.

Teddy Swims’ “Lose Control” is No. 2 on the Global 200 recap, and No. 5 for Global Excl. U.S. The remaining top five year-end global hit is Tate McRae’s “Greedy,” at Nos. 5 and 3 on the lists, respectively. Both songs spent the entire chart year on each global chart, but arrive at their high year-end finishes with different trajectories.

“Greedy” topped both lists, spending five weeks at No. 1 on Global Excl. U.S. While it lasted throughout 2024, it ended the tracking period at No. 91. “Lose Control” never climbed higher than No. 3 on Global Excl. U.S. and No. 4 on the Global 200 but held remarkably steady throughout the year. By the final frame of the 2024 chart year, it was still No. 12 on both lists, never having left the top 20 once it got there in January and February.

Notably, FloyyMenor and Cris Mj’s “Gata Only” is No. 6 on the year-end Global Excl. U.S. and No. 9 on the year-end Global 200. It’s only the second non-English-language song to crack the year-end top 10 in the charts’ four annual recaps. In 2021, Bad Bunny landed “Dakiti” at No. 6 for both rankings. They are not only the first Chilean acts to make the year-end top 10, but the first from all of South America.

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