Alan Jackson, Shania Among World's Top Old-School Country Artists

Country music may have its roots in the United States, but its connection through heartfelt storytelling and beloved superstars knows no geographical boundaries. Liberty Games, a U.K.-based company that retails, distributes and designs game room equipment, recently conducted a study to ascertain which country artists are most listened-to in each country.

Liberty Games used YouTube’s geographic streaming statistics and play counts via YouTube Video Music Charts to determine the most listened-to artists and songs over a span of 12 months.

First, a seed list of the biggest old-school country artists was populated. Next, these names were searched on the YouTube Video Music Charts to land on artist-specific pages, with a “12 months” and “global” location filter activated for view count statistics. While other genres were studied, for the purpose of this article, Taste of Country will focus on the country genre. Only artists from the '90s era and prior were researched on, hence today’s international megastars like Luke Combs, Morgan Wallen and Carrie Underwood are not mentioned.

Let's will break down the results from Liberty Games’ research into two categories: the biggest country artists globally and both surprising and interesting findings.

Which countries listen to Alan Jackson, Dolly Parton, George Strait, Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline and Shania Twain the most? And which parts of the world love them some Alabama, Chris LeDoux and Hank Williams Jr.? Read below to find out.

Biggest country artists in the world over a 12-month span:

Alan Jackson boasts a whopping 412 million global YouTube listens and is the No. 1 artist in 12 countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia, Norway, Nepal and Malaysia. He’s got everyone joining his trip to “Chattahoochee," and takes lead as the top old-school country artist in the world.
Shania Twain racked up 346 million listens and dominated in 36 countries, which include Mexico, Argentina, Poland, Egypt, Myanmar, Indonesia, Japan and Singapore. She’s the second most-listened-to artist internationally.
Kenny Rogers amassed 307 million listens globally, making him the third most-listened-to-country artist. “The Gambler” reigns at the top in Ireland, Denmark, Chile, Costa Rica, Taiwan and the Philippines.
The undisputed “Man in Black” Johnny Cash had 299 million YouTube streams and is the top listened-to artist in Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Finland, Iraq, Turkey, Spain and Russia. He ranks as the fourth most-listened-to artist.
“Write this down”! George Strait is the fifth most-listened-to old-school country singer in the world. While he doesn’t top as many countries as his aforementioned peers, he’s still notched 268 million listens.
Brooks & Dunn, Tim McGraw, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson and Toby Keith all make the Top 10 most-listened-to-country artists on YouTube.

Courtesy of Liberty Games

Surprising and interesting findings:

"Dixieland Delight" hitmakers Alabama are China's top country act. It is also the only country where they're No. 1.
Central America’s top country artist is Kenny Rogers.
Johnny Cash dominates most of Europe.
Dolly Parton is Albania’s leading country singer.
Cuba is "crazy" over Patsy Cline the most.
Buck Owens is No. 1 in Yemen.
Crystal Gayle is the top country singer in Azerbaijan.
Conway Twitty's music is played the most in Pakistan and the Maldives.
Chris LeDoux was No. 1 in Iran.
South-East Asia’s top country artist is Shania Twain.
South Korea's most-listened-to country singer is Emmylou Harris.
Hank Williams Jr. is No. 1 in Laos.
Country music’s “gentle giant” Don Williams is a favorite in India and Bhutan.
Vince Gill is streamed the most on YouTube in the Soloman Islands and Micronesia.

To read Liberty Games’ “Every Country's Most Listened-to Current and Past Artists” study in full, including the top artist and song in each country across all genres, go here.

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