Morgan Wallen, Kendrick Lamar Top Midyear Album, Song Sales
Morgan Wallen‘s I’m The Problem was the biggest album in the U.S. through the first half of 2025, and Kendrick Lamar and SZA had the biggest song with “Luther,” Luminate reported in its 2025 Midyear Report published Wednesday morning.
Since its release in May, I’m The Problem has already amassed 2.562 million equivalent units, per Luminate, buoyed most directly by over 2.9 billion streams, while also amassing about 200,000 album sales and another 250,000 song sales. SZA’s SOS, which has enjoyed a significant boost since she released her deluxe Lana reissue of the album at the end of last year, was the second-biggest album in the U.S. at the midyear with about 1.711 million equivalent units. Kendrick Lamar’s GNX came in third with just over 1.7 million, Bad Bunny’s Debí Tirar Más Fotos took fourth with 1.65 million, and Sabrina Carpenter’s 2024 Short n’ Sweet rounded out the Top Five with over 1.3 million.
On the U.S. songs side, Lamar has three of the top five. “Luther” is the undisputed Number One, racking up over 3.9 million units on over 530 million streams, and Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’ “Die With a Smile” took second with 3.1 million units. Lamar’s “Not Like Us” and “TV Off” took third and fourth, and Wallen’s “I’m The Problem” rounded out the top five with 2.5 million units.
Globally, “Die With a Smile” came in first with 1.9 billion streams, Rosé and Mars’ “APT” with over 1.6 billion streams, Billie Eilish’s “Birds of a Feather” is number three with over 1.3 billion streams, “Luther” took fourth with over 1.2 billion streams and Bad Bunny’s “DtMF” was in fifth with over 1.1 billion.
Overall, global streams rose about 10 percent at the midyear 2025 compared to last year, up to about 2.5 trillion streams. Streaming accounted for 92 percent of all music consumption in the U.S., Luminate said. Physical album sales fell slightly by 3 percent in the first half of the year, though excluding Swift’s massive sales from last year, album sales grew 5.5 percent. In order, the top 10 most-popular genres in the U.S. are as follows: R&B/Hip-Hop, rock, pop, country, Latin, dance/electronic, Christian/gospel, world music, children, and classical.
Per Luminate, the highest-growth Genres in the first half of the year were rock, latin, country, Christian/gospel and Blues, the latter of which saw a bump because of the soundtrack to Sinners. Groups like Sleep Token and Ghost, who both managed to top Billboard’s 200 Albums Chart this year, reflect growth in hard rock in particular. According to Luminate, 69 percent of hard rock listeners are men and 35 percent of them are millenial. Hard rock progenitors Led Zeppelin had the top music documentary in the first half of the year with Becoming Led Zeppelin, which Luminate said helped drive a 23 percent bump in their streaming numbers.
“This report identifies numerous opportunities for continued diversification and growth across the industry. For example, the evolving interplay of generations, genres and growth is clearly demonstrated by the resurgence of the Christian/Gospel genre,” Luminate CEO Rob Jonas said in a statement. “This multifaceted trend is fueled by its artistic evolution, enhanced accessibility through digital platforms, influence of modern worship movements, rise of powerful subgenres such as Christian Hip-Hop and a growing consumer demand for authentic content.”
