Top 20 New Albums of 2018 on Last.fm

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By m_x_ 13 Dec 2018, 11:16am

As the year 2018 comes to an end, we counted your scrobbles to find out which albums released this year have gathered the most listeners and scrobbles.

Below are the results sorted by the number of individual listeners and by scrobbles. Generally, the more listeners an album had, the more scrobbles it'd tend to accrue. Ariana Grande, Camila Cabello, Drake and Post Malone ranked among the highest in both categories. But thanks to some devoted fans, there were a few special appearances. BTS and Kids See Ghosts ranked first and eighth in scrobbles, but neither landed on the Top 10 for most listeners. Other albums that caught a lot of ears this year came from MGMT, Migos and Eminem.

By Listeners

1. Drake – Scorpion

Drake's Scorpion is the album with the most listeners this year, with nearly a quarter of a million unique listeners scrobbling the double-album since its release back in June 2018, totalling over 7 million scrobbles.

2. Post Malone – beerbongs & bentleys

Despite receiving mixed reviews (scoring only 51 on Metacritic), Post Malone's second album proved popular among 211k Last.fm users, thanks in part to his hugely successful singles 'Psycho' and 'Better Now'.

3. Camila Cabello – Camila

Transitioning from being part of a girl band to successfully going solo is a notoriously difficult achievement. Camila Cabello seems to have done just that with her solo debut, garnering over 206k listeners and 8.3 million scrobbles.

4. Cardi B – Invasion of Privacy

Building upon the insane momentum of her No. 1 hit 'Bodak Yellow', Cardi B released her bold debut album to critical acclaim, achieving 189k listeners and 4.6 million scrobbles on Last.fm.

5. Ariana Grande – Sweetener

Experiencing grief, heartbreak and other personal challenges is never easy, especially in the public eye, but Ariana Grande channeled these challenges into empowering pop anthems. Her 2018 release, Sweetener, rocked the charts and Last.fm listeners all the same, garnering more than 11 million scrobbles since its August debut.

6. XXXTentacion – ?

The tragic events surrounding controversial rapper XXXTentacion resulted in a surge in listeners and scrobbles for his second and final album.

7. Kanye West – Ye

Despite being only seven-track long, Ye gathered many individual listeners, most likely thanks to the plethora of guest appearances by 070 Shake, DeJ Loaf, Jeremih, Kid Cudi, John Legend, Nicki Minaj, PARTYNEXTDOOR, Ty Dolla $ign, Valee and Charlie Wilson.

8. Migos – Culture II

Minimalism and the "less-is-more" approach might have made waves in 2018, but Migos challenged that with Culture II. The double-album—stacked with guest appearances from Gucci Mane, 2 Chainz and more—dodges excessiveness with its dynamic sonic delivery. From hard-hitting beats to experimental melodies, Culture II earned some of the most listeners for 2018.

9. MGMT – Little Dark Age

The solid and addictive nature of MGMT's fourth album Little Dark Age resulted in a swarm of scrobbles! Considered by many to be their best work yet, it's an eccentric album that succeeds at pleasing fans of any of their previous three albums, while attracting a new audience.

10. Eminem – Kamikaze

Eminem surprise-dropped Kamikaze in late August, riling up rapheads with the album's multiple callouts (and shoutouts) aimed at the industry. It made just as big an impression on Last.fm users, landing the tenth highest in individual listener count with approximately 3.6 million scrobbles.

11. Kids See Ghosts – Kids See Ghosts

12. A$AP Rocky – TESTING

13. Justin Timberlake – Man of the Woods

14. Panic! at the Disco – Pray for the Wicked

15. Shawn Mendes – Shawn Mendes

16. George Ezra – Staying at Tamara's

17. Gorillaz – The Now Now

18. Juice WRLD – Goodbye & Good Riddance

19. Troye Sivan – Bloom

20. Kali Uchis – Isolation

By Scrobbles

1. BTS – Love Yourself 轉 'Tear'

2018 saw BTS continue to take over the world. The South Korean boy band made history by releasing their highest-charting album in a Western market and by becoming the first K-pop album to top the US albums chart. The album was the most scrobbled new release of 2018 with 12.3 million scrobbles.