Do you ever see people running without headphones and wonder what sort of nirvana they reached to exercise without music? Most of us need a soundtrack pumping in our ears to stay focused during a run, and there’s a very specific type of soundtrack that keeps us going.
WhistleOut decided to see exactly which songs keep our feet moving and our hearts pounding while we hit the pavement. Here are the most popular running songs, according to Spotify.
Most Popular Songs for Running
Top 25 Most Popular Songs for Running
| Song | Artist | Playlist Appearences |
|---|---|---|
| Blinding Lights |
The Weeknd | 96 |
| Head & Heart (feat. MNEK) |
Joel Corry, MNEK | 94 |
| Roses - Imanbek Remix |
SAINt JHN, Imanbek | 92 |
| The Business |
Tiësto | 91 |
| Titanium (feat. Sia) |
David Guetta, Sia | 83 |
| Can't Hold Us - feat. Ray Dalton |
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis | 79 |
| Eye of the Tiger |
Survivor | 74 |
| Your Love (9PM) |
ATB, Topic, A7S | 74 |
| Lose Control |
MEDUZA, Becky Hill, Goodboys | 71 |
| Shut Up and Dance |
WALK THE MOON | 70 |
| Friday (feat. Mufasa & Hypeman) - Dopamine Re-Edit |
Riton, Nightcrawlers, Mufasa & Hypeman, Dopamine | 70 |
| Shake It Off |
Taylor Swift | 68 |
| Don't Start Now |
Dua Lipa | 68 |
| Stronger |
Kanye West | 67 |
| More Than You Know |
Axwell /\\ Ingrosso | 66 |
| This Is What You Came For (feat. Rihanna) |
Calvin Harris, Rihanna | 64 |
| Paradise (feat. Dermot Kennedy) |
MEDUZA, Dermot Kennedy |
63 |
| Breaking Me |
Topic, A7S |
63 |
| POWER |
Kanye West | 60 |
| BED |
Joel Corry, RAYE, David Guetta | 59 |
| Pump It |
Black Eyed Peas | 57 |
| Piece Of Your Heart |
MEDUZA, Goodboys | 57 |
| Rain On Me (with Ariana Grande) |
Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande | 56 |
| Turn Me On (feat. Vula) |
Riton, Oliver Heldens, Vula | 55 |
| Feel It Still |
Portugal. The Man | 55 |
The top spot for the most popular running song goes to The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights,” and it’s no wonder—its slow, atmospheric start perfectly matches your warm-up pace, and by the time the drums drop and the synthesizer hook kicks in, you’re already running to the beat.
As you can imagine, the other most popular songs for running come from more contemporary artists like Macklemore, WALK THE MOON, and Tiësto, but there’s one classic song that has stood the test of time: “Eye of the Tiger'' by Survivor. People have been rocking out on their Walkmans to “Eye of the Tiger” since 1982, and even today in 2021 you’ll find people running to the same song with AirPods in their ears.
Most Popular Artists for Running
Top 25 Most Popular Artists for Running
| Artist | Playlist Appearences |
|---|---|
| David Guetta |
1,042 |
| Calvin Harris |
804 |
| Drake |
786 |
| Kanye West | 710 |
| Tiësto | 701 |
| Eminem |
660 |
| Fearless Motivation | 612 |
| Dua Lipa |
612 |
| Avicii |
608 |
| Taylor Swift |
595 |
| Rihanna |
589 |
| Nicki Minaj |
545 |
| Justin Bieber |
530 |
| Sia |
506 |
| Martin Garrix |
472 |
| Ariana Grande |
468 |
| Kygo |
455 |
| Pitbull |
439 |
| Ed Sheeran |
424 |
| R3HAB |
415 |
| Lil Wayne |
408 |
| Beyoncé |
391 |
| Lady Gaga |
389 |
| Katy Perry |
388 |
| The Chainsmokers |
381 |
Despite having the number one track for running, The Weeknd doesn’t appear in the top 10 most popular artists for running. David Guetta is, by far, the most popular music artist for running. Out of the 964 running playlists we found on Spotify, there are over 1,000 David Guetta songs. If you look at your own Spotify running playlist (or a Spotify playlist from a family member), there’s a pretty good chance you’ve got at least one David Guetta song on there.
Listen to the Top Songs for Running Now
If you’re suddenly feeling the itch to go running and want to try out the most popular running songs, we’ve got the playlist ready to go for you right now. Hopefully, you’re up for a quicker running pace, because this playlist does not let up.
Feel free to download the playlist to your phone if you’re connected to Wi-Fi and don’t want to use more data. If you’ve got wireless data to burn, then you can just stream the running playlist now.
Methodology
To find out which songs are making everyone’s running playlists, we analyzed data from 7,107 hours of music across 964 playlists on Spotify that include the word “running” in either the name or description. Songs and artists were ordered based on how many times they appeared in playlists.
This content was produced by WhistleOut and is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with the previously mentioned artists or Spotify
Tyler Abbott
Contributing Writer
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