Victor Bendo Selections — Festival Coverage
(The results are in. DJ Mag has revealed its Top 100 DJs 2026, and this year's ranking delivers both continuity at the very top and one of the most significant breakthroughs in recent Italian electronic music history. David Guetta remains the world's No.1 DJ, Martin Garrix holds second place, while Anyma makes a spectacular seven-position climb to complete the podium.)
In this article:
- David Guetta Is Once Again the World's No.1 DJ
- A Historic Sixth Victory
- Martin Garrix Remains at No.2
- Anyma Makes History for Italy
- The DJ Mag Top 10 DJs of 2026
- Charlotte de Witte Continues Her Rise
- The Biggest Climbers of the Year
- House, Techno and the Changing Shape of the Ranking
- What the 2026 Top 100 Says About Electronic Music
David Guetta Is Once Again the World's No.1 DJ
There are very few records left for David Guetta to break, but the French superstar has just found another one.
DJ Mag has officially revealed the results of its Top 100 DJs 2026, with Guetta retaining the No.1 position ahead of Martin Garrix and Anyma following a record-breaking edition of the annual public vote. According to DJ Mag, votes arrived from 234 territories around the world, underlining once again the extraordinary global reach of a poll that has become one of electronic music's most recognisable yearly events.
For Guetta, however, this victory carries considerably more weight than simply spending another year at the top.
His 2026 win marks the sixth time he has been voted the world's No.1 DJ, making him the most successful artist in the history of the DJ Mag poll and moving him ahead of Martin Garrix and Armin van Buuren, who have each claimed the title five times. Guetta first reached No.1 in 2011 before returning to the summit in 2020, 2021, 2023, 2025 and now 2026.
More than four decades into his career, his position within electronic music remains remarkably difficult to challenge.
A Historic Sixth Victory
What makes Guetta's continued dominance particularly impressive is the way he has managed to maintain a presence across several different sides of electronic music at the same time.
His career today moves comfortably between global pop records, festival main stages, Ibiza residencies and club-focused projects, while collaborations such as Future Rave with MORTEN have allowed him to stay connected to the contemporary dancefloor rather than relying entirely on his catalogue of crossover hits.
That versatility continued throughout 2026. DJ Mag highlighted collaborations including his reunion with Afrojack and Sia on Awake Tonight, the launch of the Men Machine project with Marten Hørger, further development of Future Rave, and a collaboration with ARTBAT around Somebody That I Used To Know.
At a time when electronic music moves faster than ever and audiences constantly shift toward new sounds, Guetta's ability to remain commercially dominant without completely losing touch with club culture explains why, fifteen years after his first victory, he is still sitting at the top.
Six No.1 titles are no longer simply a sign of popularity, they make Guetta the most successful name in the history of the poll.
Martin Garrix Remains at No.2
Immediately behind him, Martin Garrix remains unchanged at No.2.
The Dutch producer has spent more than a decade among the most recognisable names in global EDM and continues to be one of the few artists capable of consistently challenging Guetta for the top position. Garrix himself has already won the DJ Mag title five times, including his most recent victory in 2024, and his ability to remain inside the top two once again says almost as much about his longevity as it does about Guetta's. DJ Mag
Rather than producing a dramatic change at the very top, the 2026 ranking therefore confirms the stability of two artists who have defined a major part of modern festival culture.
The real disruption begins immediately below them.
Anyma Makes History for Italy
If David Guetta's victory represents continuity, Anyma's third place represents one of the defining stories of this year's ranking.
The project created by Italian artist Matteo Milleri rises an extraordinary seven positions, moving from No.10 in 2025 to No.3 in 2026 and reaching the DJ Mag podium for the first time. It is also a historic result for Italy, with Anyma becoming the first Italian artist to reach the Top 100 DJs podium.
The achievement feels particularly significant because Anyma's rise has been built around a project that extends far beyond conventional DJ performance.
As one half of Tale Of Us and one of the central figures behind Afterlife, Milleri has helped shape the global expansion of melodic techno, but the Anyma project has taken that visual and musical language considerably further. His shows combine electronic music with large-scale digital environments, 3D characters and immersive storytelling, creating an identity that is instantly recognisable even outside traditional club culture.
His performances at Sphere in Las Vegas became one of the clearest demonstrations of that approach, pushing the boundaries between DJ show, audiovisual performance and digital art while exposing the Anyma project to an audience well beyond the usual melodic-techno circuit.
Moving from tenth to third in only one year confirms just how quickly that vision has translated into mainstream electronic-music influence.
For the Italian scene, it is a result that carries particular weight: an Italian artist is now sharing the DJ Mag podium with David Guetta and Martin Garrix.
The DJ Mag Top 10 DJs of 2026
The complete Top 10 confirms several established names while also reflecting the growing influence of techno and contemporary house within the wider electronic landscape.
- David Guetta — non-mover
- Martin Garrix — non-mover
- Anyma — ↑ 7
- Alok — ↓ 1
- Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike — ↓ 1
- Charlotte de Witte — ↑ 3
- Armin van Buuren — ↓ 2
- Timmy Trumpet — ↓ 2
- FISHER — ↓ 2
- Vintage Culture — ↑ 1
The upper end of the ranking therefore remains populated by artists capable of filling the world's largest festivals, but the stylistic balance is increasingly broad. Mainstage EDM, techno, melodic electronic music, trance and house now sit side by side inside the same Top 10.
Charlotte de Witte Continues Her Rise
Another major winner of the 2026 poll is Charlotte de Witte, who climbs three positions from ninth to No.6, making her the highest-ranked woman in the entire chart and once again earning recognition as DJ Mag's World's No.1 Techno DJ.
Her continued rise reflects something larger than the success of a single artist.
For years, the very top of the Top 100 DJs ranking was heavily associated with big-room EDM and festival-oriented sounds, but techno now occupies a far more central position in mainstream electronic culture. Charlotte de Witte reaching sixth while Anyma reaches third makes that evolution particularly difficult to ignore.
Elsewhere in the Top 10, Armin van Buuren drops two places to No.7 but retains his position as the world's highest-ranked trance DJ, while FISHER, despite moving down to No.9, remains the highest-ranked house DJ. Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike take fifth and continue as the highest-ranked DJ group.
The Biggest Climbers of the Year
Beyond the podium, some of the most interesting stories emerge from the artists moving rapidly through the middle of the ranking.
John Summit makes one of the year's most notable jumps, moving 22 positions from No.46 to No.24, reflecting his increasingly dominant position within contemporary house and festival culture. Mau P achieves the same 22-place rise, moving from No.77 to No.55, while Chris Stussy also gains 22 places to reach No.59.
There are significant gains elsewhere too. Fred again.. rises 17 places to No.16, continuing a remarkable period in which his combination of emotional electronic music, spontaneous performances and large-scale live shows has helped him develop an audience well beyond conventional club circles.
The Martinez Brothers rise 15 places to No.28, while Korolova, Solomun and Miss Monique each make significant moves upwards, offering further evidence of the growing visibility of house, techno and melodic sounds within the poll.
At the same time, movement works in both directions. Hardwell falls 14 places to No.29, DJ Snake drops 20 positions to No.60, while Eric Prydz moves down 25 places to No.62. These shifts do not suddenly diminish their importance as artists, but they do demonstrate how quickly public voting can react to changes in touring visibility, releases and wider cultural momentum.
House, Techno and the Changing Shape of the Ranking
Perhaps the most interesting element of the 2026 results is therefore not simply who finished first, but what the wider ranking suggests about the direction of electronic music.
The DJ Mag Top 100 has often been criticised for functioning partly as a measure of popularity rather than a purely technical evaluation of DJing, and its public-vote structure naturally means that visibility, touring reach and fan engagement play a major role in determining the final positions.
Yet precisely for that reason, the ranking can also offer an interesting snapshot of which sounds and artists currently command the largest global communities.
And in 2026, that snapshot looks increasingly diverse.
David Guetta and Martin Garrix demonstrate that the generation of DJs who dominated the global EDM explosion remains enormously powerful, but Anyma's rise reflects the transformation of melodic techno into a huge audiovisual movement, while Charlotte de Witte's position confirms techno's ability to operate at the highest level of festival culture.
At the same time, artists such as John Summit, Mau P, Chris Stussy, The Martinez Brothers and FISHER illustrate the continuing strength of house music, while Armin van Buuren's presence inside the Top 10 shows that trance still maintains one of electronic music's most loyal global audiences.
DJ Mag itself described 2026 as something of a watershed year for house and techno within the poll, a shift that becomes increasingly visible when looking beyond the first few positions.
What the 2026 Top 100 Says About Electronic Music
There will always be debate around the DJ Mag Top 100 DJs.
Some fans treat it as one of the major benchmarks of global DJ culture, while others question whether any public popularity poll can genuinely determine who the “best” DJs in the world are.
Perhaps the most useful way to read the ranking is somewhere in between.
The Top 100 cannot objectively measure artistic quality, technical ability or cultural influence, but it can reveal momentum. It tells us which artists have managed to transform music, touring, identity and fan culture into enough global support to mobilise listeners around the world.
And from that perspective, the 2026 edition tells a fascinating story.
David Guetta is still at the top, fifteen years after his first victory, and now stands alone with a record six No.1 titles. Martin Garrix remains his closest challenger, once again demonstrating extraordinary consistency. But directly behind them stands Anyma, whose rise from No.10 to No.3 represents not only the biggest story of this year's podium, but a historic moment for Italian electronic music.
Meanwhile, techno and house continue to move closer to the centre of global dance culture, new-generation names are climbing rapidly, and some of the biggest DJs of the previous decade are beginning to move further down the ranking.
The names may change from year to year, but one thing remains clear: electronic music has never stopped evolving and the DJ Mag Top 100 DJs 2026 captures a scene where established giants and a new generation are now competing on the same stage.
