Brit Billion Award

The BRIT Billion Award is a special award given by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) to artists who have achieved over one billion digital streams in the United Kingdom. An extension of the BPI's music certification system, the number of streams is verified using data calculated by the Official Charts Company and is the first time in the fifty-year history of the system that an artist's combined success over multiple projects has been recognized as a collective total. The one billion career streams include tracks where the artist is the primary performer, as well as tracks where they appear as a featured artist.^[1][2]

The award was established in 2023 and first presented on May 4, 2023, to thirteen artists. To date, forty-seven recipients, including nineteen non-British artists, have received the BRIT Billion Award. The most recent recipients are Bon Jovi, who were presented with the award in October 2025. At 20 years old, Olivia Rodrigo is the youngest recipient. Whitney Houston and Amy Winehouse are the only solo artists to receive the award posthumously, while ABBA are the only group to receive the award while disbanded; Houston and ABBA were among the inaugural recipients. Ed Sheeran is the first (and only) artist to be awarded the gold version of the award for reaching ten billion streams.

The award was created to reflect the growing importance of streaming in the UK. In a statement announcing the initial recipients, Sophie Jones, Chief Executive of the BPI said, "for a recording artist, there can be few greater sources of pride than having a Platinum or Gold disc on their wall, but in an era when success in measured in the hundreds of millions and indeed billions of streams, it was clear that we needed a new and additional way to recognise and celebrate outstanding achievement in recorded music, and I feel certain that having a BRIT Billion Award will become equally prized."^[3] The trophy itself is manufactured by Gaudio Awards in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire.^[4]