Trance Top 3: Armin van Buuren Edges Tiësto, 995 to 990

The trance Top 3 is decided by the smallest margin in this countdown. Armin van Buuren takes No. 1 with a credit score of 995, and Tiësto is right behind him on 990. That 5-point gap is the story of this ranking.

The gap opens up below them. Paul van Dyk is third on 948, 42 points behind Tiësto and 47 behind the leader. First and second are close to a dead heat, while third sits clearly lower.

On audience size alone, you would expect the top two to be the other way round. Tiësto leads this trio on most platforms in the data. He has 33,937,605 Spotify monthly listeners to Armin van Buuren's 15,203,152. He also has 8,542,756 Spotify followers, 7,230,000 YouTube subscribers, 7,855,757 Instagram followers, 2,066,685 SoundCloud followers and 2,735,235 Last.fm listeners.

Armin van Buuren leads on different measures. He has 86,057 votes to Tiësto's 53,203, a lead of 32,854. He is also ahead on TikTok, with 2,500,000 followers to Tiësto's 1,300,000, and on RA, with 58,187 followers to 35,724.

Whatever the exact mix behind the credit score, the order at the top follows votes and RA following more closely than streaming totals. The same is true in third place: Paul van Dyk's 14,268 votes and 14,537 RA followers are the lowest of the three, and so is his score.

The Netherlands takes the first two places, with both Armin van Buuren and Tiësto listed under it. Germany is represented by Paul van Dyk in third. All three list Trance as their main genre, so this ranking compares DJs within one genre, with no crossover acts.

On headline reach, Paul van Dyk is in a smaller bracket than the two above him. He has 1,703,773 Spotify monthly listeners, 539,477 Spotify followers, 1,700,000 YouTube subscribers and 673,437 Instagram followers.

But his numbers are not just a smaller version of theirs. His 108,335 Mixcloud followers put him ahead of Armin van Buuren's 99,646, the only measure in this data where he beats the No. 1.

Last.fm also closes the gap. His 903,866 listeners there are roughly half of Armin van Buuren's 1,738,312. On Spotify, his monthly listeners are only about a ninth of the leader's.

The data also records a festival count of 252 for him.

The takeaway is simple. Tiësto has the bigger audience on most platforms, and Armin van Buuren has more votes. On credit score, Armin van Buuren is ahead by 5 points.

With a margin that small, first place could change with any update to this table. The 42 points between second and third make the rest of the podium look more settled than the fight for No. 1.