Popular Nigerian gospel minister Nathaniel Bassey becomes the first Nigerian gospel artist to surpass 400 million streams across all credits on Spotify.
According to The Debut Hub, this feat makes him the 43rd Nigerian artist overall to reach that streaming volume. The achievement closely follows the conclusion of the 2025 edition of his globally acclaimed online worship movement, the “Hallelujah Challenge” (held from October 7th to October 31st).
Bassey is recognized as the leading gospel artist in Nigeria to achieve this level of streaming success, making him one of Africa’s most influential gospel figures.
His popularity is driven by widely streamed worship songs like”Onise Iyanu,” “Adonai,” “Imela,” and various “Hallelujah Challenge” medleys, which have inspired millions of listeners globally.
Nathaniel Bassey is equally famous for pioneering the Hallelujah Challenge, an annual, global online worship and prayer movement. It began unexpectedly as an Instagram Live session from his living room in 2017 but quickly grew into an inter-denominational movement uniting believers worldwide. The challenge typically runs for one hour daily, from 11:59 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. (Nigerian time), across social media platforms. The event is strictly a spiritual exercise and is not for commercial purposes.
Bassey reportedly rejected an estimated ₦1.4 billion in potential YouTube revenue by choosing not to monetize his channel specifically for the Hallelujah Challenge.
The spiritual exercise centers around the theme “Olowogbogboro”,a Yoruba term meaning “The One whose arms are broad or outstretched”, or “The outstretched arm of God”.
