Sabrina Carpenter was the most popular artist on TikTok in the United States this year, the popular video app revealed in its annual year-end report Wednesday, with her viral hits like “Espresso” and “Please Please Please” collectively generating more than 15 million TikTok video creations between January and November.
Key Facts
- Ranked by views on their TikTok accounts, Carpenter was the nation’s No. 1 artist and the 10th most popular artist globally (Mexican singer Yeri Mua and South Korean boy band ENHYPEN topped that list).
- Ice Spice, who was thrust into the mainstream last year with her remix of Taylor Swift’s “Karma,” was the second most-popular American artist on the app followed by LNLA Choppa, Billie Eilish and Meghan Trainor.
- “MILLION DOLLAR BABY (VHS)” BY Tommy Richman, “CARNIVAL” by ¥$, Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign, and “Tell Ur Girlfriend” by Lay Bankz were the most popular songs in the United States based on the number of TikTok videos made using the music.
- Taylor Swift, whose Eras Tour took TikTok by storm last year, did not appear among any of TikTok’s most popular music data for 2024 (Swift’s music was absent from the app for almost three months after Universal Music Group, which distributes Swift’s music, pulled its record catalog from TikTok amid a licensing row).
- Only three top artists (Ice Spice, Trainor and NLA Choppa) repeated from the 2023 list.
The Most Popular U.S. Artists on TikTok in 2024
- Sabrina Carpenter
- Ice Spice
- NLE Choppa
- Billie Eilish
- Meghan Trainor
- Olivia Rodrigo
- Addison Rae
- KATSEYE
- Benson Boone
- Lay Bankz
The Most Popular Global Artists on TikTok in 2024
- Yeri Mua
- ENHYPEN
- NCT
- LE SSERAFIM
- Stray Kids
- Aespa
- TOMORROW X TOGETHER
- Kim Loaiza
- TWICE
- Sabrina Carpenter
The Most Popular U.S. Songs on TikTok in 2024
- “MILLION DOLLAR BABY (VHS)” BY Tommy Richman
- “CARNIVAL” by ¥$ & Kanye West & Ty Dolla $ign feat. Rich The Kid & Playboi Carti
- “Tell Ur Girlfriend” by Lay Bankz
- “Type Shit” by Future & Metro Boomin & Travis Scott & Playboi Carti
- “Never Lose Me” by Flo Milli
- “Champagne Coast” by Blood Orange
- “BIRDS OF A FEATHER” by Billie Eilish
- “Magic Johnson” by ian
- “TGIF” by GloRilla
- “Gata Only” by FloyyMenor & Cris Mj
Big Number
140 million. That’s how many TikTok videos were made using the top 10 songs in the United States. Many of the top TikTok artists, like Sabrina Carpenter, Lay Banks and Flo Milli, went on to see musical success at the Grammy Awards and on the Billboard and Spotify charts.
Tangent
The annual TikTok report also provided insights into some of the app’s most popular trends of the year. Educators were more popular than ever in 2024, the company said—with influences like Shelby Lattimore and Deidre Kelly garnering huge audiences and the #TeachersOfTikTok tag was used 5.5 million times between January and November. The STEM community, led by astronaut Kellie Gerardi and teachers like Chemical Kim, also blew up, with #science posts increasing 45% over last year. There was a 350% increase in #SportsOnTikTok posts compared to last year, and #BookTok saw 1.2 million posts created in the first 10 months of 2024.
Surprising Fact
TikTok trends led to at least two “word of the year” designations. After Jools Lebron popularized the catch phrase “very demure, very mindful”—which was later repeated by stars like Lindsay Lohan, Jennifer Lopez, Olivia Rodrigo and Khloe Kardashian—Dictionary.com named “demure” the 2024 Word of the Year. The same thing happened after Charli xcx’s “Brat Summer” blew up on the app thanks to a dance created by Kelley Heyer—Collins Dictionary has made “brat” the Word of the Year.
Key Background
TikTok has more than 1 billion global users, 170 million of which are in the U.S., the company says. Despite its popularity, the app has been controversial among lawmakers for its parent company’s ties to the Chinese government and it faces a possible ban in the United States. President Joe Biden and other lawmakers have argued that as long as TikTok is owned by the Chinese company, it represents a privacy threat to users. Biden earlier this year signed a law that would ban the app unless its parent company, ByteDance, sells its stake in TikTok by Jan. 19—one day before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration. TikTok sued the government over the potential ban, and Trump made campaign trail promises to save the app. A federal court is expected to rule this week whether to uphold the federal ban on TikTok.
