Imagine Dragons

Imagine Dragons are one of the most commercially successful rock bands of the 2010s, a genre-blurring group that kept arena rock on the charts through a decade when guitars were fading from mainstream pop. Formed in 2008 and built around frontman Dan Reynolds, the band pairs anthemic choruses with electronic production and pounding, percussive rhythms. They have sold more than 74 million albums, earned roughly 160 billion streams, and became the first rock act to land four songs, “Radioactive,” “Demons,” “Believer” and “Thunder,” each past one billion streams.

From a college band to Las Vegas

Reynolds formed the group while studying at Brigham Young University in Utah, recruiting an early lineup that shifted before settling into its core members: Reynolds on vocals, Wayne Sermon, a Berklee College of Music graduate, on guitar, Ben McKee on bass, and Daniel Platzman on drums. The band relocated to Reynolds’s hometown of Las Vegas and played almost nightly as a lounge act, grinding through small rooms for years. Their first real break came in 2009, when the band Train pulled out of the Bite of Las Vegas Festival at the last minute and Imagine Dragons stepped in, performing for a crowd of more than 26,000 people.

“Radioactive” and a record-breaking rise

In late 2011 the band signed with Interscope Records and began working with the Grammy-winning producer Alex da Kid. Their debut album, Night Visions, arrived in 2012, led by “It’s Time,” a song Reynolds had written in his college dorm room. The album’s second single, “Radioactive,” became a phenomenon: it set the record for the longest run on the Billboard Hot 100 at the time, 87 weeks, and grew into the best-selling rock song in digital history. It won the band their first Grammy, for Best Rock Performance, which they performed at the ceremony alongside rapper Kendrick Lamar. The third single, “Demons,” gave them another enduring hit.

Building a catalogue

The band did not fade after their debut. Smoke + Mirrors followed in 2015 and debuted at number one, and 2017’s Evolve produced three of their biggest songs in “Believer,” “Thunder” and “Whatever It Takes.” Reynolds wrote “Natural” during the same sessions but held it back for the 2018 album Origins, knowing it was strong enough to anchor its own record. Later projects including Mercury Acts 1 and 2, which featured the hit “Enemy,” and 2024’s Loom kept the band on the charts. They remain the only group in the Recording Industry Association of America’s history to have four songs certified above the Diamond level.

Reynolds beyond the band

Reynolds has used his platform for causes outside music. In 2017 he organized LOVELOUD, a charity festival created to support LGBTQ youth and fight teen suicide, and a related documentary, Believer, premiered at Sundance. He also founded the label Night Street Records, signing artists who went on to their own success. Through all of it, the band has stuck to a simple idea Reynolds describes as keeping it homespun: writing constantly, recording vocals on cheap microphones in hotel rooms when the moment felt right, and aiming for songs that fill stadiums without losing their pulse.

Keeping rock on the charts

Part of what made Imagine Dragons notable was timing. They broke through in a decade when guitar bands were vanishing from mainstream radio, and they kept arena rock commercially alive by fusing it with electronic textures, hip-hop rhythms and enormous, chant-along choruses. That genre-blurring approach drew both huge audiences and criticism from purists, but the numbers were hard to argue with: according to Billboard, “Believer,” “Thunder” and “Radioactive” ranked as the three best-performing rock songs of the entire 2010s.

Songs built for stadiums

Reynolds has described writing constantly, treating each late-night song as a kind of journal entry, and the band has said that nearly everyone contributes to the writing. Their live shows lean into spectacle, with Reynolds a restless, shirtless presence pounding drums and racing across the stage. The combination of relentless touring and stadium-sized songs turned a band that once played near-empty lounges in Las Vegas into one of the biggest live acts of their era.

The long climb

Reynolds often points to the band’s lean years as the heart of their story. Before Night Visions, the members lived together in a small house, played tiny clubs for little money, and won a college battle of the bands long before any label took notice. He has said an aspiring musician should never turn down a gig, because a show for twenty people can turn into the break that changes everything, which is close to how their own rise actually unfolded. That grind shaped a band that has never taken its arena-sized success for granted, and it gives their underdog story a credibility that their critics rarely dent, and it explains why their songs still fill the biggest venues in the world.

Most loved songs

The biggest hits and a few favorites. Each title opens through the in-site player.

Few rock bands have matched their streaming numbers or their stadium-sized hooks. If one of their songs is stuck in your head, type it into the search box above to find it.