Microtrends across house, pop, and hip hop signal a changing landscape dominated by niche growth and continued genre fragmentation driven by shifts in how creators engage with anever-changing creative environment.
How last year’s spotlight genres fared throughout 2025
Pluggnb, our ‘sound of 2024,’ continued to grow at a moderate 34% compared to its breakthrough of 343%. Phonk broke through the mainstream with 265% growth, as well as an influential crossover into K-pop with BLACKPINK member Jennie’s solo hit ‘Like Jennie,’ both built on phonk sounds and showcasing the growing Brazilian influence highlighted in last year's report.
K-pop received a surge of download growth after Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters dropped, helping reverse a 6-month decline. Jersey club may be past its peak—the genre saw a 21% decline, but still holds at triple its size in 2023.
Afro house is 2025’s Sound of the Year—following through on our 2024 prediction as an ‘early growth’ genre to watch, the kwaito-influenced subgenre took over summer setlists around the world with 778% year-on-year download growth.
Speed garage has arrived at the club—flaunting 2-step percussion, chopped vocals, wobbly bass, and a massive dose of FOMO. The genre saw a huge 625% growth boom over the past year with 3.0+ million downloads.
Authenticity over polish is the name of the game for bedroom pop’s continued climb. The subgenre’s triple-digit growth reflects a broader increase in demand for the root genres of indie, indie rock, and shoegaze.
It’s clear—people want to dance. 2025’s top three most downloaded packs catered to EDM, pop, and hip hop creators, with more than half of these high-ranking packs being released within the last year, suggesting that creators continue to gravitate towards sounds influenced by current trends.
Dance is here to stay
Hip hop holds strong at the top for the third year in a row, with pop bouncing back to 3rd place and house surging up to 2nd. Afro house comes out on top with 778% growth, with other dance-forward genres like speed garage, hardwave, hard dance, and jump up dnb all seeing triple-digit % growth.
Searching for what’s next
User searches are the best indicators of what’s on the horizon for 2026—take last year’s report on Afro house’s 2024 430% search growth, leading it to become 2025’s fastest growing genre. This year, our data points to R&B-influenced offshoot, sexy drill, as the genre to watch in 2026.
Los Angeles remains the most significant domestic market for downloads, with New York seeing the most significant year-on-year growth among US cities. Read the full report to see city-specific download trends and discover the biggest genres driving NYC to the dancefloor.
Looking abroad, Seoul comes out on top for the second year in a row, with the WANA (West Asia and North Africa) region boasting continued growth. See current city-level trends driving global influence overseas in the full report.
