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Drake's 'One Dance' Is The First Song To Hit 1 Billion Plays On Spotify

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This article is more than 7 years old.

Drake’s “One Dance” has a new place in history as of today as the first song to hit 1 billion plays on Spotify, truly putting the hip-hop master on his own level.

The song has been incredibly popular on all fronts throughout 2016, and while it is no longer ruling the charts, it is still being played incessantly. The track now stands at 1.001 billion streams on Spotify alone, and that number is sure to continue rise quickly. The track has, of course, racked up many more streams on sites like YouTube, Pandora, iHeartRadio, Apple Music and plenty of others, so that billion figure is probably actually a bit low when taking into account all services. In addition to the billion-plus streams the track has enjoyed, the song has sold millions of copies and been played on nearly every format of radio across the country since day one.

The song stole the title of the most-played song ever on the streaming platform back in October when it passed Major Lazer’s internationally-adored dance smash “Lean On,” which had previously owned that honor. At the time, “Dance” had around 880 million plays, and it has taken just under two months for him to collect the additional 120 million. The hip-hop/pop/R&B hybrid has only been online since April, meaning it racked up over one billion streams in less than nine months. The song was originally uploaded as a standalone single on the same day as fellow Views track "Pop Style," but it was eventually taken down and is now only streamable on Spotify as a part of the full album.

The hits featured on Drake’s latest album helped make the title record-breaking, especially when it comes to streaming. Despite the fact that Apple Music reaped the benefits of its partnership with the artist when Views first dropped—besting the all-time first week stream count with an incredible 245 million plays in just the first seven days of availability—Spotify is still seeing its users hitting play on the rapper’s tunes nonstop. In fact, Drake is the site’s most-played artist, even though his allegiance lies elsewhere.

“One Dance” wasted no time in making it to the top of the Hot 100, where it ruled for 10 nonconsecutive weeks, only stepping aside once when Justin Timberlake’s ultra-catchy “Can’t Stop The Feeling!” stormed in at No. 1 with little warning. The track has now dipped below the top 40, and it’s the last single from Views on the all-encompassing singles tally, but that doesn’t mean that people will stop listening.