Martin Garrix’s rise began with “Animals,” a club track that unexpectedly became a UK number-one single in 2013. Its chart success, followed by a rapid run of major festival bookings and a growing professional team, turned a young Dutch producer into an international dance-music star. That history explains the commercial scale behind the “millions” framing—but the available sources do not establish a verified figure for his personal net worth.
Before “Animals”: a young producer finds a platform
Garrix had been making music for years before his breakthrough. In a 2014 Forbes profile, he described early performances at weddings and birthday parties; the article also reported that he won DJ competitions in the Netherlands. He signed with Spinnin’ Records in 2012, giving him a label platform for releasing music.
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The story is not simply that a teenager uploaded one song and became famous overnight. Years of production practice, a label deal and the ability to play live formed the groundwork. The breakthrough arrived when one track travelled far beyond the club audience it was made for.
How “Animals” became the breakthrough
A club track with an unexpected drop
Garrix released “Animals” on 17 June 2013, according to his official music page. In a 2014 interview with TIME, he said he reopened an older project and shaped the drop with hip-hop inspiration. “I wanted to bring something weird, something unique into the track,” he said, “and that turned out to be the drop of ‘Animals.’”
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He said his initial aim was to make a record for festivals, clubs and his own sets—not to engineer a chart hit. The Official Charts Company reported that the single debuted at number one on the UK Official Singles Chart and sold nearly 106,000 copies in its first week in 2013. Garrix told the outlet, “I didn’t expect this success at all!”
From dance floors to radio and international attention
The track’s instrumental format did not keep it confined to dance venues. Garrix told TIME that he began playing it live, then radio picked it up, which surprised him. The Official Charts Company’s UK chart report captures the scale of the breakthrough there; it should not be mistaken for a measure of his earnings or total worldwide sales.
Garrix’s official site later described “Animals” as spending four consecutive weeks at number one on Beatport and accumulating more than 700 million YouTube hits. Those are retrospective claims on the artist’s own page, not a current view count. Together with its UK chart debut, they show why the song became the defining early milestone of his career.
The rapid shift from rising producer to festival headliner
The success of “Animals” coincided with a sharp expansion in Garrix’s live career. Forbes reported that he attended Ultra Music Festival as a fan in March 2013, then played Ultra, Coachella, EDC Las Vegas and Tomorrowland in 2014. Citing Songkick data, the 2014 article counted more than 40 performances in the 12 months after 1 June 2013. That is a reported show count for that period, not a record of income.
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Professional relationships also developed alongside the bookings. Forbes reported that Scooter Braun’s team heard an early demo through Michael George, who had met Garrix while scouting at Ultra in 2013. The article said a co-management arrangement involving Braun’s SB Projects and a Spinnin’ Records arm was put together that year. Braun described the approach as deliberately modest: “We didn’t want to come in as big shots. The truth was, I was a rookie in EDM.”
In 2014, Forbes called Garrix EDM’s “fastest-rising” star in its feature headline. That phrase described the pace of his ascent at the time; it is not a timeless industry ranking.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What his career grew into after the hit
“Animals” gave Garrix an international platform, but his later career was not limited to repeating its formula. Insomniac’s retrospective artist profile describes collaborations across pop and electronic music, his STMPD RCRDS label and an Amsterdam studio complex. It also lists the 2022 club album Sentio and reported brand relationships with Replay, JBL and Heineken. These details indicate a broader working career spanning releases, collaborations, infrastructure and partnerships; the profile is not an audited account of their financial value.
What “grew his millions” can—and cannot—mean
Garrix’s career provides evidence of commercial scale: a UK number-one single, substantial early live demand, a label and management structure, later releases and reported partnerships. Those facts help explain how his work became a large-scale business. They do not reveal how much he personally earned, what expenses or contractual shares applied, or what assets and liabilities he holds.
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1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteThe sources cited here do not verify a current personal net-worth total. It would be misleading to convert a historic sales figure, a show count, a retrospective video-view claim or a list of brand relationships into a fortune estimate. “Millions” is best understood as a headline’s shorthand for the scale of the career, not a substantiated personal balance-sheet figure.
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