Heartbreak Pays: Inside Music’s Most Lucrative Celebrity Breakups

Breakups aren’t just tears, deleted Instagram photos, and sad tweets anymore.

When musicians split, fans don’t just get drama—they get hits. We’re talking cold, hard, Spotify-streaming cash.

Welcome to the wild economy of breakup songs, where love lost can mean profits gained.

Halsey Takes Heartbreak Straight to the Bank

Coming out on top (and taking emotional revenge to an art form) is Halsey’s Without Me, inspired by her tumultuous split with rapper G-Eazy.

With over 2.2 billion Spotify streams and an eye-watering 14 million units sold, this isn’t just therapeutic—it’s financially transformative, earning an estimated $3.6 million worldwide.

The music video even featured a G-Eazy lookalike, leaving fans no room for doubt.

Clearly, heartbreak pays off when you have Halsey’s flair for dramatic storytelling.

Olivia Rodrigo’s Teen Angst Hits the Jackpot (Twice!)

Olivia Rodrigo didn’t just write about heartbreak; she practically trademarked it.

drivers license didn’t just dominate TikTok—it hijacked the entire internet when it dropped, pulling in 2.4 billion streams and around $4 million in Spotify royalties alone.

Apparently, nothing sells quite like teenage heartbreak and high school drama.

But Rodrigo wasn’t finished twisting that knife. She quickly followed up with good 4 U, another shot fired at Joshua Bassett.

Despite a sticky copyright clash (Paramore got writing credits after a legal hiccup), the song didn’t lose any steam, snagging another $3.9 million and 2.3 billion streams. If heartbreak is a business model, Rodrigo’s pretty much the CEO.

Miley Cyrus Blooms from the Ashes

And then there’s Miley. Flowers, inspired by her high-profile breakup with Liam Hemsworth, didn’t just hit—it exploded, achieving a massive 2.4 billion Spotify streams, the highest on the entire list.

Miley didn’t just recover; she thrived, scooping up around $4 million in royalties.

Flowers proves there’s life after heartbreak. And evidently, a lot of cash too.

Taylor Swift: The Serial Heartbreaker (Profit-Maker)

Of course, no list of profitable breakups could exclude Taylor Swift. Swift’s Dear John is still making waves, more than a decade after its release, banking over $240,000 from Spotify royalties alone.

Add hits like All Too Well, Forever and Always, and the biting Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve, and Swift practically runs a breakup-hit factory.

The Top 10 Most Profitable Breakup Songs

Rank	Song	Artist & Subject	Spotify Streams	Spotify Royalties (Worldwide)	Total Units Sold
1	Without Me	Halsey @ G-Eazy	2,210,193,857	$3,682,182.97	14,360,000
2	drivers license	Olivia Rodrigo @ Joshua Bassett	2,424,254,105	$4,038,807.34	9,570,000
3	good 4 U	Olivia Rodrigo @ Joshua Bassett	2,373,487,458	$3,954,230.11	9,170,000
4	Don’t	Ed Sheeran @ Ellie Goulding	798,828,813	$1,330,848.80	7,150,000
5	Call Out My Name	The Weeknd @ Selena Gomez	2,034,152,540	$3,388,898.13	4,620,000
6	Lose You to Love Me	Selena Gomez @ Justin Bieber	1,324,308,569	$2,206,298.08	4,550,000
7	Part of Me	Katy Perry @ Russell Brand	632,681,660	$1,054,047.65	6,020,000
8	Flowers	Miley Cyrus @ Liam Hemsworth	2,452,891,570	$4,086,517.36	2,500,000
9	Dear John	Taylor Swift @ John Mayer	145,708,873	$242,750.98	6,035,000
10	Perfect	Harry Styles @ Taylor Swift	1,032,240,430	$1,719,712.56	2,810,000

How the Data Was Collected

The data collection for this ranking involved careful analysis by experts at GIGAcalculator.

They compiled a seed list of breakup-inspired songs from sources like Billboard, Business Insider, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, and BuzzFeed.

Spotify streams, estimated royalties calculated through a dedicated royalties calculator, and certified units sold were all considered, with figures sourced primarily from the US, UK, and Australia. The collection of data concluded in March 2025.