Drake's Spotify reign stopped by The Weeknd

The Weeknd has ended Drake's long reign as king of Spotify, topping the rapper's record of monthly listeners in November.

The Starboy singer had close to 37.5 million plays last month compared to Drake's 36 million.

Data released by Spotify shows Drake hadn't been topped in a monthly streaming list since May.

The Weeknd's latest album Starboy, released late last month, has now been streamed by almost a third of all Spotify users.

Starboy has also been named the "the third-biggest debut of the year" by Billboard.

The singer's second album topped the music magazine's coveted 200 chart on Monday.

Starboy sold 348,000 albums in the week ending 1 December, according to Billboard.

That's still behind Drake's Views and Beyonce's Lemonade.

Starboy, released just one year after The Weeknd's breakthrough album Beauty Behind the Madness, is a mixture of R&B and electronica.

The lead single features a collaboration with French electronic duo Daft Punk.

Earlier this month, Drake was crowned Spotify's most streamed artist of 2016 for both album and song.

"Drake has been unstoppable this year, he's a true global superstar," Spotify said in a statement.

"With the top album and the top song this year, as well as his successful Summer Sixteen tour, Drake continues to engage his fans in a way that only Drake can," they added.

"It's no surprise he is dominating the music industry."

The Canadian rapper's songs have been streamed 4.7 billion times so far this year.

His title of most streamed artist of 2016 remains unchallenged.