A new study of the web’s most popular guitar tabs has sought to find out which artists are shaping the playing journeys of modern guitarists – and both legacy and contemporary acts rank highly.
UK gear retailer guitarguitar has done the exhausting number crunching, analyzing the 5,000 most-viewed tabs and chord sheets on Ultimate Guitar. From this, 3,424 songs from 1,340 artists were put under the microscope, with page views tallied to determine the players and bands that are most popular with guitarists.
Chart-smashing loop pedal aficionado Ed Sheeran has topped the artist rankings, beating The Beatles and Taylor Swift, who came second and third, respectively.
In a breakdown of songs, Sheeran's 2017 track Perfect was noted as the fourth most in-demand song to learn. Jeff Buckley’s perpetually covered Hallelujah, Oasis' Wonderwall – no doubt buoyed by the band's blockbuster reunion – and Jason Mraz's I'm Yours all ranked higher in terms of the most viewed songs, but the Sheeran's overall influence was enough to see him crowned as the most popular player overall.
Interestingly, Elvis Presley's Can't Help Falling in Love rounds out the top five songs. That means there's no place for Seven Nation Army, Come As You Are, and Stairway to Heaven, which were crowned as the most Googled guitar riffs in a 2024 study. Only Stairway (12) features in the top 20 most-viewed tabs.
Sheeran’s catalog-wide tally of 229.5 million tab views trumps his closest competitors, the Beatles (226.1 million), Taylor Swift (167.8 million) – who recently broke Michael Jackson's 36-year-old sales record – and Metallica (125.9 million).
Other interesting results include Adele, an artist whose music is more regularly associated with piano and orchestral arrangements rather than the guitar, ranking sixth – while Bruno Mars' guitar-less piano ballad When I Was Your Man helped the singer to a ninth-placed finish.
Metallica are the only metal band in the top 20, with Radiohead, Pink Floyd, and Coldplay also making notable appearances.
“It’s no surprise to see artists like Ed Sheeran, The Beatles, and Taylor Swift leading the list, with their timeless songs that translate beautifully to guitar,” says Adam Speck, Marketing Director at guitarguitar.
“From classic ballads like Let It Be to modern favourites like Perfect, these are the tracks people dream of being able to pick up and play. What’s really encouraging is that so many of these songs are completely achievable for beginners with a bit of practice.”
In related Sheeran news, he recently surprised a school with a visit as he donated a score of Lowden acoustic guitars to its students.
