Top Album Sales is a music chart published by Billboard magazine starting in May 1991, [1] and has existed in its current form since December 2014. It is a weekly chart documenting the best-selling albums on a weekly basis in the United States. Up until December 2014, this had been documented by the Billboard 200 chart, but that chart was altered to factor in music streaming by accounting for album-equivalent units in its tallies to document the effect of the rise of music streaming outlet such as Apple Music and Spotify. Starting in the Top Album Sales chart's debut week of May 25, 1991, Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from Soundscan, now known as Luminate. [1] During the week of December 6, 2014, the chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. [1] The Top Album Sales chart was created to preserve the older methodology of counting pure album sales. [2] [3] [4] [5]
In December 2023, Taylor Swift became the first act to simultaneously occupy the top 4 positions of the chart. [6] In January 2024, Swift also became the first act to simultaneously occupy 7 of the top 10 positions. [7]
Issue date | Album | Artist(s) | Pure sales | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
December 13 | 1989 | Taylor Swift | 281,000 | [8] [9] |
December 20 | 230,000 | [10] [11] | ||
December 27 | 2014 Forest Hills Drive | J. Cole | 353,000 | [12] [13] |
Issue date | Album | Artist(s) | Pure sales | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
January 6 | 1989 (Taylor's Version) | Taylor Swift | — | [952] |
January 13 | — | [953] | ||
January 20 | 17,000 | [954] [955] | ||
January 27 | Orquídeas | Kali Uchis | 31,000 | [956] [957] |
February 3 | Saviors | Green Day | 39,000 | [958] [959] |
February 10 | Dave's Picks Volume 49 | Grateful Dead | 21,000 | [960] [961] |
February 17 | 1989 (Taylor's Version) | Taylor Swift | 12,000 | [962] [963] |
February 24 | Coming Home | Usher | 53,000 | [964] [965] |
March 2 | This Is Me... Now | Jennifer Lopez | 14,000 | [966] [967] |
March 9 | With You-th | Twice | 90,000 | [968] [969] |
March 16 | — | [970] | ||
March 23 | Eternal Sunshine | Ariana Grande | 77,000 | [971] [972] |
March 30 | Deeper Well | Kacey Musgraves | 66,000 | [973] [974] |
April 6 | Born | Kenny Chesney | 18,500 | [975] [976] |
April 13 | Cowboy Carter | Beyoncé | 168,000 | [977] [978] |
April 20 | Minisode 3: Tomorrow | Tomorrow X Together | 103,500 | [979] [980] |
April 27 | Cowboy Carter | Beyoncé | — | [981] |
May 4 | The Tortured Poets Department | Taylor Swift | 1,914,000 | [982] |
May 11 | 107,000 | [983] |
The Billboard 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by Billboard magazine to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists. Sometimes, a recording act is remembered for its "number ones" that outperformed all other albums during at least one week. The chart grew from a weekly top 10 list in 1956 to become a top 200 list in May 1967, acquiring its existing name in March 1992. Its previous names include the Billboard Top LPs (1961–1972), Billboard Top LPs & Tape (1972–1984), Billboard Top 200 Albums (1984–1985) and Billboard Top Pop Albums (1985–1992).
The Digital Songs or Digital Song Sales chart ranks the best-selling digital songs in the United States, as compiled by Nielsen SoundScan and published by Billboard magazine. Although it originally started tracking song sales the week of October 30, 2004, it officially debuted in the issue dated January 22, 2005, and merged all versions of a song sold from digital music distributors. Its data was incorporated in the Hot 100 three weeks later. Since October 2004, digital sales have been incorporated into many of Billboard's music singles charts. The decision was based on the dramatic increase of the digital market while commercial single sales in a physical format were becoming negligible.
American rapper and record producer, Ye, better known as Kanye West, has released 10 studio albums, three collaborative studio albums, one compilation album, one demo album, two live albums, one video album, and five mixtapes. All ten of his studio albums have been certified at least gold in the United States. As of June 2021, West has certified 25 million equivalent solo albums units in the United States, placing him among the highest-certified music artists in the United States.
American singer Beyoncé has released eight studio albums, five live albums, three compilation albums, five EPs, one soundtrack album, and two karaoke albums. To date, Beyoncé has sold over 200 million records worldwide as a solo artist, making her one of the best-selling music artists of all time. Billboard ranked her as the 37th greatest artist of all time.
The American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift has released 11 original studio albums, 4 re-recorded studio albums, 5 extended plays, and 4 live albums. She has sold an estimated 114 million album units worldwide, 51 million of which are certified in the United States. In terms of pure sales, she has tallied 46.6 million albums in the United States and 7 million albums in the United Kingdom. As of February 2024, she is the solo artist with the most weeks (69) at number one on the US Billboard 200.
If I Know Me is the debut studio album by American country music singer Morgan Wallen. It was released on April 27, 2018, through Big Loud Records. The production on the album was handled by Joey Moi and features a guest appearance by Florida Georgia Line.
Dangerous: The Double Album is the second studio album by American country music singer Morgan Wallen. The double album was released on January 8, 2021, via Big Loud Records and Republic Records on CD, vinyl, and digital download. The production on the album was handled by Joey Moi, Jacob Durrett, Charlie Handsome, Matt Dragstrem and Dave Cohen. It also features guest appearances by Chris Stapleton and Ben Burgess.