Harry Styles’ ‘As It Was’ Named IFPI’s Top Global Single For 2022

24 February, 2023

We’ve all lived in Harry’s House in recent times, as Grammy Awards, Brit Awards and now a special IFPI Award go the way of Harry Styles.

The British pop star’s megahit “As It Was” is crowned with IFPI’s Global Single Award for 2022, an honor that recognizes the top performing single across all platforms, and all markets.

Lifted from Styles’ third solo studio album Harry’s House, “As It Was” racked up 2.28 billion global equivalent streams last year, according to the trade association, an impressive distance ahead of Glass Animals’ “Heat Waves” (1.75 billion streams) and The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber’s “Stay” (1.74 billion), which respectively complete the podium.

The IFPI Global Single Award is presented each year to the act with the world’s “best-selling” single across all digital formats — including paid subscription streaming, ad-supported platforms, and single-track downloads.

Following its release April 1, 2022, “As It Was” made its home at the top of sales charts on both sides of the Atlantic and across the globe.

In the U.K., it logged 10 weeks at No. 1, as Styles went on to sweep all four Brit Awards for which he was nominated — artist of the year, Mastercard album of the year, song of the year and the fan-voted pop/R&B act.

The single led the Billboard Hot 100 chart for an astonishing 15 weeks, helping Styles to win Grammys for album of the year and best pop vocal album, both for Harry’s House.

Styles even won the fan-voted best international artist at the 2022 ARIA Awards, after “As It Was” reigned over the national Australian chart for six weeks.

The Brit is no stranger to IFPI silverware. He first received an IFPI Award as part of One Direction when the association first launched the IFPI Global Recording Artist Chart 10 years ago.

Frances Moore, CEO of IFPI, congratulates the former 1D star and remarks: “It’s wonderful to see such a diverse mixture of songs in the Global Singles Chart this year – some familiar tracks from the previous year that continued to grow in 2022, amongst plenty of new tracks and some reimagined older tracks – all going to show that record companies are working hard to find new ways to ensure music fans around the world have access to such a wide range of music year on year.”

Earlier in the week, the IFPI anointed Taylor Swift as the global recording artist of the year, winning for an unprecedented third time, having already topped the tally in 2014 and 2019.

Styles came in at No. 8 on that official list, which ranks acts’ worldwide performance across digital and physical music formats during the year, from streams to vinyl, and covers their entire body of work.

IFPI Top 10 Global Singles 2022

  1. Harry Styles- As It Was (2.28bn)
  2. Glass Animals – Heat Waves (1.75bn)
  3. The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber – STAY (1.74bn)
  4. Elton John and Dua Lipa – Cold Heart (PNAU Remix) (1.34bn)
  5. The Weeknd – Save Your Tears (1.32bn)
  6. Imagine Dragons & JID- Enemy (1.26bn)
  7. Ed Sheeran – Shivers (1.23bn)
  8. GAYLE – abcdefu (1.22bn)
  9. Bad Bunny & Chencho Corleone – Me Porto Bonito (1.21bn)
  10. Ed Sheeran – Bad Habits (1.20bn)
  11. Bad Bunny – Tití Me Preguntó (1.14bn)
  12. Dua Lipa – Levitating (feat. DaBaby) (1.11bn)
  13. Adele – Easy On Me (1.03bn)
  14. The Weeknd- Blinding Lights (1.01bn)
  15. Lil Nas X and Jack Harlow – INDUSTRY BABY (1.01bn)
  16. Kate Bush – Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) (1.00bn)
  17. Encanto Cast – We Don’t Talk About Bruno (0.95bn)
  18. Farruko – Pepas (0.94bn)
  19. Jack Harlow – First Class (0.92bn)
  20. Karol G – PROVENZA (0.92bn)

*Global subscription streams equivalent

Lars Brandle

Billboard