Beatles Replace Taylor Swift As Top Artist On Ultimate Guitar In 2025
(Muse Group) As 2025 comes to a close, Ultimate Guitar, the largest platform for tabs and chords owned by Muse Group, shares the biggest shifts in what musicians chose to play this year. The data highlights the most-played artists and songs as well as the strongest growth, including fast percentage jumps and the tracks that gained the largest number of new views.
This year, Ultimate Guitar users can also explore their personal playing highlights. In December, registered users will receive their insights through the platform's Advent Calendar. They'll get a year-in-review that includes their top artists, top songs, total minutes spent playing guitar in the app, and other interesting details about their year with Ultimate Guitar.
Long-time favorites continued to lead the overall top in 2025: The overall top of 2025 looks very similar to 2024, which shows that Ultimate Guitar users tend to return to the same core group of artists when choosing what to play. In 2024 Taylor Swift was the most-played artist, supported by the scale of The Eras Tour. In 2025 she moved to second place, while The Beatles returned to the top with more than 34 million views. Radiohead rose from seventh to third place, showing a clear increase in interest in their catalog.
Green Day returned to global touring in 2025 and released a deluxe edition of their latest album. This activity may have contributed to their appearance in the top ten this year, replacing Adele in the overall ranking.
Radiohead's "Creep" became the most-played tab of 2025 with 10.6 million views. In 2024 it was in third place. Vance Joy's "Riptide" also moved upward from ninth to third place. The song remains one of the most common choices for beginner acoustic and ukulele players, which may explain its steady climb. "Hotel California" by Eagles shifted from first place to fifth place but remained one of the top picks on Ultimate Guitar. The most visible new entry is "Die With a Smile" by Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars. The song reached 4.35 million views and entered the yearly top after a peak in February, when it received the Grammy Award for Best Pop Duo or Group Performance.
Top 10 artists of the year on Ultimate Guitar
The Beatles - 34,288,447 views
Taylor Swift - 26,113,000 views
Radiohead - 25,965,480 views
Ed Sheeran - 20,730,229 views
Coldplay - 20,540,417 views
Oasis - 20,130,338 views
Billie Eilish - 17,387,219 views
Bob Dylan - 15,510,512 views
Green Day - 12,179,001 views
Nirvana - 12,179,001 views
The 2025 results show two different types of activity on Ultimate Guitar. On one hand, the core set of classic and beginner-friendly songs stayed almost unchanged from last year. On the other, clear peaks appeared around tours, award shows, viral clips and anniversaries, which pushed certain tracks and artists upward for shorter periods. Together, these results show that long-standing habits on the platform sit alongside short spikes of interest that appear when tours, awards or viral moments put certain songs back in focus.
The fastest-growing artist of the year is yung kai. His track "blue" went viral on social media in 2024 and stayed popular in 2025, reaching its peak on Ultimate Guitar in February. Tab views for "blue" grew by 589%, taking him from position 445 in 2024 to 65 this year. The song is now close to 4 million views.
After the metal legend Ozzy Osbourne passed away in July, many musicians returned to his songs to pay tribute. In the week after his death, tab views grew ten times, and since July 22 his catalog has gained more than 1 million views, taking him from #267 to #103.
Bob Dylan grew by 116% as interest in his early work increased after the 2024 biopic A Complete Unknown and his spring tour, moving him from #18 to #8. Zach Top added more than 100% and around 580K views. beabadoobee completes the top five, her catalog rose by 101% after new tour dates and the growing popularity of "Beaches," taking her from #76 to #35.
Top 5 artists with the highest view increase on Ultimate Guitar
Absolute growth shows which artists gained the largest number of new views over the year. It helps highlight catalogs that musicians returned to most often, no matter where the artists started in the ranking.
Radiohead added more than 12 million new views and moved from #7 to #3. They were already strong on the platform, and their 2025 tour kept interest high. Bob Dylan followed with an 8.35 million increase. Oasis, who recently wrapped their reunion tour, grew by almost 5 million views but remained at #6. The Beatles added 4.87 million new views and returned to #1 after being overtaken by Taylor Swift last year. Goo Goo Dolls grew by 4.28 million views, helped by the renewed attention around their 2025 tour.
Top 5 fastest-growing songs of the year on Ultimate Guitar
This year's fastest-growing tracks rose after clear moments of renewed attention. yung kai's "blue" leads with +578%, which became the main driver of his popularity this year. Coldplay's "Sparks" grew +191%, with a noticeable rise in June driven by the band's world tour and a new wave of acoustic covers. Jeff Buckley's "Lover, You Should've Come Over" grew +175% after a new wave of attention around his catalog, driven by anniversary posts and tribute videos.
Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" rose +157%. Much of the early-spring increase came from "Blowin' in the Wind" and "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," two songs that regularly reappear in U.S. listening trends during moments of public reflection. Chappell Roan's "Pink Pony Club" closes the list with +151%. The track peaked on February 8, shortly after her Best New Artist win and her performance at the 2025 Grammy Awards on February 2.
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