Background: Spotify is the Swedish audio-streaming giant with more than 600 million users worldwide. Since 2016, it’s rolled out Spotify Wrapped every December - the yearly tradition that shows each user their top genres, listening “age,” favourite podcasts, and all the quirky listening habits they didn’t realise they had.

What happened: Wrapped 2025 absolutely exploded out of the gate with more than 200 million users engaged within the first 24 hours, a 19% jump from last year. And, that’s despite Wrapped 2024 being dragged down by a very unpopular AI-podcast experiment.

What else: Wrapped’s biggest markets this year were the US, India, Indonesia and Thailand. That's a reminder of just how powerful Spotify’s network effects (and rich data) really are.

What's the key learning?

💡The most valuable customer acquisition channels are often the ones you never pay for. Wrapped started as a fun self-expression tool, now it creates hundreds of millions of free global promos every December.

💡When people genuinely want to share something, the reach beats paid ads every time.
Wrapped was shared more than 500 million times in 24 hours, up 41% YoY - so they've managed to turn their users into a massive, organic megaphone.

💡Social proof hits harder when it comes from friends, not brands. So Wrapped works as growth fuel because it’s personal, authentic, and user-driven... the kind of marketing you can't buy, only build.