The Billboard 200 albums chart measures the top releases during the weekly tracking period every Friday through Thursday. While it used to be determined strictly by record sales, the ever-changing landscape of music consumption led Billboard to update its methodology for the 21st century.
In 2014, Billboard started considering multiple metrics of music success, including online streams and individual track sales, in addition to the traditional album sales that previously made up the entirety of the Billboard 200’s chart determinations. An album sale currently counts as one album unit. Sales of 10 individual tracks also counts as one unit. But an artist needs 3,750 ad-supported streams or 1,250 paid subscription streams to equal one unit. Then in 2020 Billboard began counting music videos on platforms like YouTube.
The Beatles hold the record for the most No. 1 albums with 19; they also have the most No. 1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 with 20. But Beatles alumnus Paul McCartney has 27 top albums when you add in his solo efforts and those he recorded with his subsequent band, Wings. Jay-Z and Taylor Swift rank second with 14 No. 1 albums. Barbra Streisand is the only artist to claim the top spot in six different decades.
The big story of 2024 was Swift’s latest album The Tortured Poets Department, which ended up spending 17 nonconsecutive weeks atop the list. It was ultimately named the Billboard 200 album of the year at the Billboard Music Awards, while Swift was named Billboard‘s top artist of the year and top Billboard 200 artist of the year. Perhaps surprisingly, Tortured Poets was the only one of the top five albums of 2024 that was actually released in 2024. Other blockbusters Zach Bryan by Zach Bryan, For All the Dogs by Drake, and Swift’s own 1989 (Taylor’s Version) came out in 2023, while Noah Kahan‘s long-lasting Stick Season dropped in 2022.
Who’s making history this year? See the full list below, updating throughout 2025.
One week at No. 1 in 2025 (11 total)
Jan. 4
R&B star SZA has had blockbuster success with her second studio album SOS, which spent the entirety of its run in the top 20 from its original Dec. 9, 2022, release to its Dec. 20, 2024, deluxe reissue, subtitled Lana, which added 15 tracks to the set’s preexisting 23 songs. It shot back up to the top of the chart for the first time in 22 months, giving it an 11th total week at No. 1. It’s the longest-running R&B chart-topper since Whitney Houston‘s The Bodyguard soundtrack, which led the way for a whopping 20 weeks from 1992 to 1993.
