Despacito becomes most streamed song of all time, with 4.6bn plays

Reggaeton stars Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee, who have topped the charts all over the world including nine weeks in the UK, push their guest vocalist Justin Bieber into second place

 Favorito, favorito... Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee performing at the Latin Billboard awards. Photograph: Lynne Sladky/AP

Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s reggaeton hit Despacito has become the most streamed song of all time, with 4.6bn streams globally across all major platforms.

The announcement from Universal Music Latin Entertainment means that Sorry by Justin Bieber is now pushed into second place on 4.38bn, though Bieber shares in Despacito’s success with his guest vocal on the track, which helped it cross over from Latin hit to worldwide smash.

Puerto Rico-born Fonsi called it “an honour”, while Universal CEO Lucian Grainge heralded a “tremendous accomplishment”, saying: “Streaming has opened up the possibility of a song with a different beat, from a different culture and in a different language to become a juggernaut of success around the world.”

Despacito has spent nine of the past 10 weeks at the top of the UK charts – by far the longest run for a foreign-language song – and is currently back at the top of the US Billboard charts, where it has spent 10 weeks at the top in total. It was recently credited with a rise in tourism to Puerto Rico, which gets a namecheck in the song.

Thanks to streaming services such as Spotify publishing global charts, hits from the world of Latin pop now have more visibility in countries they previously might have ignored them. Other Latin pop songs currently in Spotify’s global chart include J Balvin’s Mi Gente at number seven – which crept into the UK chart at 100 this week – Maluma’s Felices Los 4 at number 22, and Danny Ocean’s Me Rehúso at number 30.