Harry Styles breaks Spotify streams record with "As It Was"

By Eleonora Pilastro
Published
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Harry Styles (UK) is back and everything is as it was before… or maybe not quite!

This week "As It Was", the newest single from the British singer-songwriter, was released.

An instant hit, the song had soon racked up millions of streams, earning him the Guinness World Records title for the most streamed track on Spotify in 24 hours (male).

The song, which has a blend of retro '80s echoes and contemporary upbeat sounds, accumulated 16,103,849 streams in it's first 24 hours on the platform, according to Spotify’s Global Top 200 daily chart.

From Australia to Venezuela, Iceland and the United Arab Emirates, 34 countries saw the single as their top track for the day.

In the USA the track gathered an impressive 8.3 million streamers, surpassing Olivia Rodrigo’s "Drivers License" as the most streamed track on the first day in the United States (and earning a Spotify record).  

The song also had 1,247,683 streams in the UK and 1,168,896 in Mexico. 

 
 
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"As It Was" serves as lead single and preview for the singer’s upcoming new studio album: his third, Harry’s House, coming out on the 20th of May. 

In a 2019 interview with Rolling Stone, Styles declared that he suspected a lot of powerful music would be produced during lockdown, as he was spending more time writing lyrics and playing the guitar. 

"As It Was" might be the result of a unique historical moment (touching upon themes like isolation and fluidity), and it is clear that Styles' fans welcomed this return by rushing to Spotify and logging a staggering number of streams. 

However the enthusiasm certainly didn't stop with the streaming platform: at the time of writing, the YouTube video for "As It Was" has achieved 39,923,048 views on YouTube – and counting. 

The song opens with a young voice saying: "Come on, Harry, we want to say goodnight to you!"

For this section, as confirmed by EW, the voiceover was done by Styles' five-year-old goddaughter Ruby, and kicks off a '70s inspired video featuring some iconic London landmarks. 

As picked up by Vogue, the red coat and outfit worn by the former One Direction star in the music video are already iconic. 

The red sequined jumpsuit designed by Arturo Obegero is all over the internet, and mirrors a bright electric blue design that is worn by Styles' dance partner.

Harry Styles As It Was video

Another British iconic singer, Adele, holds the record for most streamed track on Spotify in 24 hours (female). 

She also holds the overall record for the most streamed track on Spotify on the day of its debut.

Her hit single and much-awaited return, "Easy on Me" smashed the previous record assembling the incredible number of 19,749,704 listeners on Spotify for the first day of its release.