Wizkid has extended his record as the most certified African artist in the United States, passing 25 million certified units with the RIAA across singles, albums and features.
The total counts every credit attached to his name, from his own releases to his guest appearances on other artists’ records. That puts him ahead of every other African act on the American certification ledger.
“One Dance” leads the count with 15 million certified units, easily the heaviest contributor to his total. The Drake smash introduced Wizkid to a mainstream American audience in 2016 and spent ten weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. It later made him the first Nigerian-credited artist to earn an RIAA Diamond plaque.
“Essence,” his crossover hit with Tems, follows with 5 million units. The record has grown from a slow-burning favourite into one of the defining Afrobeats songs of the streaming era. “Come Closer,” another Drake collaboration, stands at 1 million.
Those three songs account for most of the figure, but the rest is built on a long run of gold plaques. “Soco,” “Mood,” “Joro,” “Ginger,” “Brown Skin Girl” and “Call Me Everyday” all carry gold certifications. His 2020 album Made in Lagos became the first African album certified gold in the US in 2022.
The milestone shows how consistently American audiences have followed Wizkid across eras, collaborators and sounds. For Afrobeats, it is another reminder that the genre’s global footprint was shaped in large part by the Starboy’s catalogue.