The 40 Most Played Songs on Rock Radio in 2023

If you're curious which songs made the biggest waves on rock radio this year, we've got you covered.

Although there are a plethora of different ways to consume music, including digital and streaming platforms, radio was still one of the top forms of music consumption in 2023. In July, Nielsen reported that AM/FM radio reaches 91 percent of adults aged 18 and up every month [via Forbes]. To break it down further, 87 percent of adults between the ages of 18 and 34 listen to AM/FM radio every month, whereas Spotify reaches 43 percent of that same age group each month.

This year was a big one for a lot of our favorite artists, including Metallica, whose 11th studio album 72 Seasons came out in April. Several of the songs from the record received a lot of airplay. Foo Fighters, Three Days Grace, Disturbed and Godsmack were some of the other artists with multiple entries on the list.

Something that differentiated 2023 from 2022 was the success that country artists found on rock radio this year. Jelly Roll and Hardy, in particular, both had a couple of songs that got a lot of spins throughout 2023, thanks to their blend of country and rock. The former of the two made history when "Need a Favor" from his album Whitsitt Chapel became the first song to ever land in the Top 10 of both the rock and country charts at the same time. Thus, he's vowed to do a rock album to celebrate the victory.

"I'm a huge fan of a guy named Tech N9ne," Jelly Roll told Loudwire Nights host Chuck Armstrong in an interview. "This cool thing he used to do, where every like third album, he would drop an album called the Collabo and it would be 10 or 12 songs, like a real LP, but he would have a feature on every song... And that's how I'm going to do my rock record."

The list we compiled of the 40 most-played songs on rock radio throughout 2023 was based on data from Mediabase. They were ranked based on the total number of plays they received from January through December of this year. A handful of songs were actually released in 2022 but found a lot of success this year, so we made note of which of those tracks actually came out prior to January in the description of the album or single art.

Scroll below to see the 40 most-played songs on rock radio throughout 2023. To hear the best variety of rock on the radio, tune into Loudwire Nights, hosted by Chuck Armstrong weeknights at 7PM ET, and Loudwire Weekends on Saturday and Sunday nights hosted by Meatball.

Loudwire Nights with Chuck Armstrong airs nightly starting at 7PM ET. You can tune in anytime, from anywhere right here or by downloading the Loudwire app.