Ranked by Fans: The Top 3 DJs Worldwide, Decided by Just 60 Votes

Every so often a fan vote lands so tightly packed that the ranking reads less like a hierarchy and more like a photo finish. That's exactly what happened at the top of the Top 3 DJs Worldwide, where David Guetta, Armin van Buuren, and Martin Garrix are separated by a total of 60 votes from first to third.

Guetta leads with 11,970 fan votes. Armin van Buuren sits second on 11,940 — 30 votes back. Martin Garrix rounds out the podium with 11,910, another 30 behind. Across the entire top three, the spread is 60 votes. In a poll of this scale, that is effectively a tie, and it means none of these three won because the audience overwhelmingly preferred them. They won because the audience is deeply, evenly invested in all three.

That kind of parity is rare, and it says something about how established each of these names is. When the electorate can't meaningfully separate the front-runners, you're not looking at a breakout moment — you're looking at three long-standing pillars of the scene holding their ground.

What makes this trio interesting is the gap between what fans voted and what our credit score — our internal measure of standing — suggests. Armin van Buuren, the Netherlands' trance figurehead, actually carries the highest credit score of the three at 938, edging Guetta's 928 and Garrix's 908. Yet he lands at #2 on the fan vote.

It's a reminder that a fan poll rewards passion and reach, not just pedigree. Guetta, working in the Dance / Pop lane, converts one of the broadest audiences in electronic music into raw votes. Armin's trance following is famously devoted, which keeps him within a whisker of the top spot despite a narrower stylistic focus. Garrix, whose big-room sound sits back in the commercial family alongside Guetta, completes a podium that spans two genre worlds and one very small numerical gap.

Geographically, the top three tilt toward the North Sea. Guetta represents France, while both Armin van Buuren and Martin Garrix fly the Dutch flag — a nod to the Netherlands' outsized role in shaping modern dance music. Stylistically, though, the podium refuses to settle into one sound: pop-leaning dance, pure trance, and big room all share the frame.

That breadth is part of why the vote is so close. These aren't three artists competing for the same listener; they're three artists who each command a distinct corner of the electronic map, and their fan bases turned out in near-identical numbers.

Strip away the order and the headline is parity. Guetta's #1 is real, but it's a lead measured in dozens of votes, not thousands. Armin's #2 comes despite the strongest credit score in the group. Garrix's #3 is a photo-finish placement, not a distant one.

In a scene that loves a clear king, the fans have instead handed us a near-perfect three-way stalemate — and that might be the most telling result of all. When the margin is 60 votes across the entire podium, everyone on it has a legitimate claim to the throne.