Drake becomes Spotify’s most streamed artist and album in a single day, setting a 2026 Spotify record.
Among many other music fans, my love-hate relationship with Toronto’s infamous hitmaker, Drake, continues to thrive after witnessing the release of Iceman over the weekend.
Instead of one album, we were met with a 2 hour and 29 minute mixed bag of traditional rap, R&B and dance-inspired tracks filled with silly viral bars, shots at other artists, and consistent themes from past records.
Last Friday, May 15, ‘Drake’ Aubrey Graham released the highly anticipated Iceman album alongside a surprise drop of two additional albums, Habibti and Maid Of Honour.
The music landscape has been eagerly waiting to see what Drake would bring to the table after his messy public feud with Kendrick Lamar back in 2024, which the general public deemed as a loss for the artist.
Since then, whatever Drake would drop next would mark a make-or-break moment in Drake’s career.
It’s still a bit too early to tell what the overall cultural longevity of the albums will be, but the immediate reception has been extremely mixed from fans and haters alike.
It’s been noted that Drake sounds hungrier over impressive production, backed by various beat switches and more diverse melodic experimentation.
However, the sheer amount of memorably goofy lyrics, such as “Ironic ‘cause the Iceman was a nice man” and inconsistent track quality have brought a collective amount of talk (and streams).
On May 17, Spotify announced that Iceman is the most streamed album of 2026 in a single day and that Drake was the most streamed artist of 2026 in a single day so far. The combined power of all 3 albums amassed a combined total of 197 million first-day streams.
Before this, that title belonged to BTS when they released their album, Arirang, back in March. Funnily enough, the group were mentioned by Drake in the now viral line “I’m feeling like BTS ‘cause it took the whole career for me to be so discovered,” on the album’s opener, ‘Make Them Cry’.
I was genuinely excited to see what the next chapter of Drake would sound like and I still don’t know if it’s a mess or a classic.
But one thing is for certain, I’m not getting those 2 and half hours back anytime soon.
