most-streamed-music-movies-apps-popular-2015

Because our phones, tablets and e-readers are pretty much tethered to us on a daily basis, we thought it might be fun to take a look at some of the charts surrounding 2015's most popular tech, media and streaming content. Among them were Paterson rapper Fetty Wap and Rumson's Charlie Puth.

(NJ.com file photos)

It would have been hard to fathom even five years ago, but so much of our daily entertainment lives are now tethered to properties that stream or are downloaded or read online. Here's a look at some of the charts surrounding 2015's most popular tech, media and streaming content:

APPS

Apple has named the video-steaming tool Periscope as its App of the Year and Lara Croft Go as its Game of the Year. For the full list, curated by Apple staff, click here.



As for paid apps, the top five were Heads Up!, Minecraft Pocket Edition, Trivia Crack, Five Nights at Freddy's 2, and Facetune. The top five free apps were Trivia Crack, Facebook Messenger, Dubsmash, Instagram, and Snapchat.

PODCASTS

Most say that 2014 was the Year of the Podcast thanks to the compelling NPR audio documentary "Serial," which helped propel the medium. This year, the most popular podcasts were "Fresh Air," "Serial," "Stuff You Should Know," "This American Life," "Planet Money," "Radiolab," "Freakanomics Radio," "The Joe Rogan Experience," "The Nerdist" and "The Dave Ramsey Show."

MUSIC

The most-played artist on Spotify was Drake with more than 1.8 billion streams and 46 million listeners, Time reports. The most-streamed album was The Weeknd's "Beauty Behind The Madness" with 60 million listeners. And for female artists in particular, Rihanna was the most-played female singer on the music-streaming service, raking up 1 billion streams and 57 million listeners.



The top-streamed artist? Tech Crunch reports that Paterson-based rapper Fetty Wap's "Trap Queen" was the most streamed song of the year.

Over on iTunes, the biggest selling albums were "25" by Adele, "If You're Reading This It's Too Late," by Drake, "1989," Taylor Swift, "Fifty Shades of Grey (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)" by various artists and "Purpose" by Justin Bieber.



The top songs were "Uptown Funk," by Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars, "Thinking Out Loud," by Ed Sheeran, "See You Again," by Wiz Khalifa featuring New Jersey native Charlie Puth, "Sugar," by Maroon 5, and "Shut Up and Dance," by Walk the Moon.

The top-selling MP3s sold on Amazon were "Thinking out Loud," "Uptown Funk," "Hello," "See You Again," and Swift's "Shake It Off."

E-BOOKS

Ah, books ... remember those? The top-selling fiction e-books of 2015 were "The Girl on the Train" by Paula Hawkins, "Grey," by E.L. James, "The Martian: A Novel" by Andy Weir, "All the Light We cannot See: A Novel," by Anthony Doerr, and "The Nightingale" by Kristin Hannah.

PIRACY

As far as content acquired through less than legal means, Torrentfreak reports that, for the fourth year in a row, "Game of Thrones" was the most-pirated TV show with an estimated 14.4 million downloads. It's followed by "The Walking Dead," "The Big Bang Theory," "Arrow," "The Flash," "Mr. Robot," "Vikings," "Supergirl," "The Blacklist" and ... "Suits." (Really?)



As for films? According to Variety, the Matthew McConaughey sci-fi film "Interstellar" took the top spot with 46.7 million downloads, followed by "Furious 7," "Avengers: Age of Ultron," "Jurassic World," "Mad Max: Fury Road," "American Sniper," "Fifty Shades of Grey," "The Hobbit: Battle Of The Five Armies," "Terminator: Genisys," and "Kingsman: The Secret Service."



YOUTUBE VIDEOS



The most popular YouTube video of the year was Heaven King dancing to Silento's "Watch Me (Whip/Na Nae)," which racked up a whopping 125,249,927 views. The "Clash of Clans" Super Bowl commercial starring Liam Neeson was No. 2 followed by Roman Atwood's plastic ball prank and the "Love Has No Labels" PSA from the Ad Council. View the complete list, click here.

AMAZON PRIME

While Amazon Prime keeps its streaming metrics pretty close to their vest, Variety reports that its new alternative history series "The Man in the High Castle" is its most-streamed series.

Anthony Venutolo may be reached at avenutolo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @AnthonyVenutolo and Google+. Find NJ.com on Facebook.