Was Everybody’s Spotify Wrapped Embarrassing This Year?

It’s the most wonderful time of the year: Spotify Wrapped season. Even if you’re a loyal Tidal user (the tomatoes are already flying), this is the one day when everyone collectively becomes a data analyst, a pop culture critic, and a little psychologically exposed.

After last year’s rollout left many listeners confused with oddly specific genre labels and questionable tracking that felt more “algorithm-assigned” than truly reflective of taste, people are actually happy this time around. Users are saying Spotify outdid itself and finally delivered a Wrapped that feels accurate, cleaner, and way more fun to share.

As anyone with sense could tell you, 2025 belonged to Bad Bunny. The Puerto Rican superstar is the world’s most-streamed artist, with a staggering 19.8 billion streams. Others in the top-streamed list include The Weeknd, Billie Ellish, and Drake. Spotify also delivered a handful of shiny upgrades to Wrapped, including a “Top Artists Race” that tracks listening habits over the year like a head-to-head competition. Then there’s the “Listening Age” feature, which compares your musical tastes to others’ based on the release years of your most-played tracks. And for the first time ever, Spotify told users what their Top Albums were.

But for all the excitement, Wrapped also brought back embarrassment. Plenty of people opted out, claiming they couldn’t survive the incoming scrutiny.

“It never gave I’m going to post my Spotify Wrapped on my main story," one TikTok user admitted. "It’s embarrassing. It’s private.”

“We won’t be speaking about my number one artist this year,” writer Hunter Harris said via an IG story paired with the meme of a man standing alone in the darkness, hands in pockets.

great year for music thank you spotify wrapped pic.twitter.com/Jh2DirF1Gd
— SITA (@raspberhrriies) December 3, 2025

Story posts were quickly accompanied by lengthy captions detailing why certain artists “snuck” into top rankings while others mysteriously vanished.

“I’m so embarrassed of mine this year; I had too much K-pop," one anonymous Spotify user told TSBK. "I didn’t even think I listened to it that much.”

“The world finding out I listen to ‘boy rap’," another put it more succinctly.

Andreanna Kelsey’s Wrapped was mostly predictable, with Ariana Grande sitting comfortably at the top, but the new Top Albums feature caught her off guard.

“It listed Selena Gomez’s album with Benny Blanco, “ she said. ”I think I listened to her album once. I was shocked that that was on there. If I would have posted the album list, I would have blacked that out, too, because I’m like, that’s not factual.”

@sippinwithsierra
I will tell you wicked was my top album of the year 🤭 #spotify #spotifywrapped #wrapped
♬ original sound - Sierra

Music marketing professional Olivia Shalhoup felt feeling pretty good about her Wrapped, which included Bad Bunny, Ariana Grande, and Charli XCX, crediting that confidence to Spotify’s “Exclude from Taste Profile” tool. The feature lets users block certain listening habits from influencing recommendations, which she suspects might also shape Wrapped results. She pointed to how Spotify’s autoplay and shuffle-add features can inflate unexpected artists in a listener’s stats, something that happened to her last year.

“Spotify is always going to recommend you Sabrina Carpenter. It doesn’t matter what you’re listening to, they’re gonna play Sabrina Carpenter next," Shalhoup says. "I wouldn’t say I was embarrassed, but I was surprised, because I’m like, why the hell is she on here? I think that is what ends up with people being embarrassed. People are creatures of habit and always go back to classic albums like SZA’s CTRL. I think people are kind of thrown off by that at the end of the year.”

When it comes to what truly qualifies as “embarrassing,” though, Shalhoup had a strong take.

“I saw somebody—I shit you not—their top artist was, number one, Chris Brown, number two, Tory Lanez," she said. "Neither of them really had big years. You definitely did that on purpose, so I feel like that’s embarrassing.”

And then there’s the new “Listening Age” feature, which Shalhoup says would have an unexpected outcome.

“The opposite of embarrassing is when you post your age this year, and it’s old," she says. "I saw somebody was, like, 45 and I’m like, damn, you’re so cool and cultured. I think it’s going to become a status symbol to have old music on Spotify.”

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