And the top song on the planet for 2023 was…

The IFPI, the global group representing the interests of the recorded music industry is out with more stats about 2023. Last week, it told us that when all the metrics were totaled up, Taylor Swift was the number one artist on the planet. Two of her songs were in the top ten of music consumed tracks. But she was not at number one.

No, the biggest song on Earth in 2023 was “Flowers” from Miley Cyrus. It was heard 2.7 billion times in terms of “subscription streams equivalent.” Uh, okay. What does that means?

“Subscription streams equivalent” is a new measurement that combines streams and sales. It also considers the value of these streams and sales in different parts of the world. That’s the best I can do.

“Flowers” was also the biggest track on Spotify last year. Over 1.6 billion streams came from there.

In second spot was “Calm Down” by Selena Gomez (1.89 billion subscription streams equivalent, helped by an Afrobeat remix) followed by SZA’s “Kill Bill” (1.84 billion SSE). In fourth was The Weeknd and Ariana Grande’s “Die for You” (1.78 billion). Fifth spot went to “As It Was” from Harry Styles (1.46 billion).

An interesting stat: Only eight songs in the top 20 were released in 2023, and three of those were new remixes or re-recordings. Of the songs released prior to 2023, seven were released in the second half of 2022. The rest were older. For example, The Weeknd’s “Starboy” made the top 20 with one billion streams–and it was released in 2016. “Another Love” from Tom Odell (released in 2012) got a boost from use in TikTok videos.

Read more here.