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  • Updated Nov 24, 2022

    im trying to scientifically answer this question, please no anecdotes or you'll be banned

    by bigger, i dont just mean who has more fans/more streams, but im also asking about their cultural relevance and overall impact, not just in the US but across the world

    HEATMAP:

    An artist can record a huge chunk of their views in a few countries only, say in the US. Their comparative shares in remaining countries would then underperform massively reference values. This issue is known for years in the world of statisticians. A very efficient way to avoid these outliers consists in comparing rankings instead of raw values. As a result, instead of saying that Drake outperforms the scale by 2.05 to 1 in Trinidad and Tobago, we will say that Trinidad and Tobago is the country of rank 1, the one where he performs the best relatively speaking

    Drake's 2019 heatmap

    • Let’s first check the big ones yet. It is as clear as water that Drake is bigger where the black culture is bigger. Trinidad and Tobago leads his top markets, just ahead of the US. We can’t blame him, recording some of his best numbers in the biggest market of all sounds like a very good idea.

    • All countries inside the Top 10 are from North America, Africa, and the Middle East. The first real surprise comes from Portugal, a market that isn’t that much open to the US culture by European standards, which happens to be Drake‘s #11 country. People originally from Mozambique, Angola, Guinea-Bissau, and Cape Verde are certainly a part of the explanation

    Taylor's 2019 heatmap

    • So, where do her remaining views come from? The importance of the US is being reduced in good part by her impressive showing all over Asia. Through our articles covering multiple artists, we noticed that very few artists are big in all parts of Asia. Some are huge in India / Pakistan / Bangladesh, others in Japan / Singapore / Hong Kong, others in the Philippines / Indonesia / Thailand, but smashing in all these areas isn’t that frequent. Swift is definitely popular in all of them.

    • Vietnam is by far her strongest market. There, she outstreams scale acts by over 4 to 1. Asian countries doesn’t only claim her #1 spot, in fact her entire Top 14 markets relative popularity-wise come from this continent which is fairly insane.

    STREAMING:

    • Taylor is easily the bigger artist RIGHT NOW. But what about their peak?
    • this is just in the US though, and Taylor also removed her music from Spotify from 2014-2017 which explains her relatively low numbers

    CULTURAL IMPACT: Who's changed the landscape of music more? idk how to measure this. I know Taylor went from country to pop and also did some folk s***. Even people who hate Drake will admit that he fundamentally changed hip hop, and influenced pop + r&b. some might say he helped popularize afrobeats too.

  • Nov 24, 2022
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    2 replies

    Yes

  • as a sales stan and professional chart watcher, taylor selling 1 million first week not only means she's bigger than drake, she is also the greatest of her generation

  • Nov 24, 2022
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    1 reply

    They're about the same height.

  • Nov 24, 2022
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    1 reply
    Allison Wanderland

    They're about the same height.

    No drake is like 6'1 at least

  • Nov 24, 2022
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    3 replies

    Brother it’s thanksgiving make a plate and enjoy your day

  • Nov 24, 2022
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    1 reply
    Bro0o0ses

    No drake is like 6'1 at least

    So is taylor

  • Nov 24, 2022
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    1 reply
    Hedobevibindoe

    So is taylor

    Really

  • Nov 24, 2022
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    2 replies

    whos getting more spins in the global south?

  • Nov 24, 2022
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    6 replies
    Bro0o0ses

    Really

  • Nov 24, 2022

    Does Taylor even lift, bro?

  • Nov 24, 2022

    - BRAVE

  • Nov 24, 2022

    Yea

  • Nov 24, 2022
    fun guy

    whos getting more spins in the global south?

    Taylor is the most popular western artist of all time in China

  • Nov 24, 2022
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    2 replies

    It’s Drake. Can’t remember the last time I heard some Taylor Swift

  • Nov 24, 2022
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    4 replies

    she doesnt have a hit as big as one dance or gods plan

    but she is consistently outselling.. makes you think

  • Nov 24, 2022

    This is now a 24k magic appreciation thread

  • Nov 24, 2022

    Yes

  • Nov 24, 2022
    fun guy

    she doesnt have a hit as big as one dance or gods plan

    but she is consistently outselling.. makes you think

    Bruhh

  • Nov 24, 2022
    fun guy

    whos getting more spins in the global south?

    Taylor

  • Nov 24, 2022
    fun guy

    she doesnt have a hit as big as one dance or gods plan

    but she is consistently outselling.. makes you think

    She ain’t really outselling him. She’s cooking the numbers w gimmicks and s***

  • Nov 24, 2022

    Shes just as big as drake

  • Nov 24, 2022
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    1 reply

    Bigger and better

  • Nov 24, 2022

    Depends. I'd say they're on equal ground in the Americas and Europe.

    But Drake is bigger in Africa while Taylor is bigger in Asia.

    Taylor is the best selling Western artist OAT in Asia iirc.

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