Rock or Country: Which Leads US Streams?

Comic-style illustration of an electric guitar and a banjo in a tug of war over a giant pair of headphones.

By Julian Park, edited by Nora Whitfield

Published December 4, 2020 · Updated October 20, 2026 · 3 min read

Last checked October 20, 2026 · Suggest a correction

Which is bigger in the United States now, rock or country, and does the answer change when you count streams instead of album sales, song downloads instead of albums, or concert seats instead of either? It depends how you measure it, so this page takes one measure at a time, using 2025 data from the entertainment data company Luminate and a 2022 federal arts survey.

Streams: rock leads

In Luminate’s 2025 US data, rock accounted for 18.6% of all on-demand audio streams. Country accounted for 8.7% of on-demand audio streams in the same Luminate data. On that measure, rock’s share is about twice country’s (our arithmetic).

Among the genres Luminate lists in that table, rock ranks second and country fourth by share of on-demand audio streams, with Latin a close fifth at 8.6%. Luminate’s 2025 tracking year ran from January 3, 2025, to January 1, 2026, a standard 52 weeks.

Albums: rock leads again

Luminate also splits US sales by format. Rock took 41.8% of total album sales in Luminate’s 2025 US data, and country took 6.3% of total album sales.

Counting physical album sales alone, rock’s share was 43.3% and country’s was 5.9%, by Luminate’s figures.

Songs bought one at a time

For digital song sales, Luminate puts rock at 23.6% and country at 12.0% of the US total in 2025. Rock leads on every one of these four Luminate measures.

New music versus old favorites

Luminate’s 2024 report added a wrinkle about age. It said world, Latin and country lead in the share of their US on-demand audio streaming that is current, meaning songs 18 months old or newer. Rock is not named among the leaders there, and this page prints no catalog share for either genre. For the older side of country, a separate page looks at what classic country songs sing about.

What about concerts?

Here the data runs out. The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) ran its Survey of Public Participation in the Arts in July 2022, as a supplement to a Census Bureau survey, and it does not ask about rock concerts or country concerts on their own. Both fall inside one catch all item for “other” live performances, which the NEA says may include rock, folk or country music concerts, rap or hip-hop performances, comedy and improv, magic shows and circus acts.

In the 12 months ending in July 2022, 21.2% of US adults said they attended something in that “other” group. That single figure cannot split rock from country, so this page makes no concert comparison.

The short version

In Luminate’s 2025 US data, rock drew 18.6% of on-demand audio streams and country 8.7%. Rock also leads country on Luminate’s album sales and digital song sales measures, and the NEA’s 2022 survey does not separate the two genres’ concert crowds.

Last checked: 2026-10-20, against Luminate’s 2025 and 2024 Year End Music Reports and the NEA’s 2022 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts highlights. This article was machine-checked against the sources above and has not been expert-reviewed. Spotted an error or a newer public figure? Please tell us on our contact page with the article link and we will review it.

Sources

S1 Luminate, “2025 Year-End Music Report”, table “U.S. Share of Total Volume, by Format & Genre”, selected top genres. https://luminatedata.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/2025-Year-End-Music-Report-1.14.26.pdf . Saved copy accessed Oct 20, 2026.
S3 Luminate, “2024 Year-End Music Report”, the genre streaming page on current and catalog share. https://luminatedata.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Luminate_Year-End_Report_2024.pdf . Saved copy accessed Oct 20, 2026.
S2 National Endowment for the Arts, “Arts Participation Patterns in 2022: Highlights from the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts”, Figure 3 and the note on “other” performing arts. https://www.arts.gov/sites/default/files/2022-SPPA-final.pdf . Saved copy accessed Oct 20, 2026.

What changed

Rock and country figures: the old page said the country radio format ranked No. 1 in both popularity and number of stations, that a typical week in 2009 saw 21 country songs in the Billboard Hot 100 compared to 14 rock tracks, that the odds an adult will attend a rock performance in a year are 1 in 10.4, a country concert 1 in 19.65 and a classical music or opera performance 1 in 23.77, and that country accounted for 12% of album sales and rock 34%, per Nielsen SoundScan. It also said album sales fell 14% in 2008 and nearly 50% since 2000, that ringtone sales fell 24% from 2007 to 2008, that teens aged 13 to 17 acquired 19% less music, that some UK economists said Britain's music business was growing, and that North American box office receipts rose 7.8% from 2007 to 2008 on 8% higher ticket prices. The rewrite uses Luminate's 2025 US shares by format: on-demand audio streams, rock 18.6% and country 8.7%; total album sales, rock 41.8% and country 6.3%; physical album sales, rock 43.3% and country 5.9%; digital song sales, rock 23.6% and country 12.0%. It notes that the NEA's 2022 arts survey counts rock and country concerts only together with other events (21.2% of US adults), so no concert comparison is made. The radio, Billboard, concert odds, 2008 sales, ringtone, teen, UK and box office figures and the Donny and Marie line were removed because no current source for them is on file. The original page was posted by Jon Sobel.