Republic Is the Top Label of 2022: The Year in Charts
Written by djfrosty on December 1, 2022
For a second straight year, Republic Records is No. 1 on all three of Billboard’s leading year-end label rankings: Top Labels, Billboard 200 Labels and Billboard Hot 100 Labels. The company achieved the triple for the first time in 2021.
Republic has triumphed on the year-end Top Labels tally in six of the last eight years, and as the top Hot 100 Label in nine of the last 11 years.
Explore All of Billboard’s 2022 Year-End Charts
During the 2022 tracking year, Republic placed 72 albums on the weekly Billboard 200 chart, including the most that reached the top 10 (23) and top 40 (40) of any label. Among those were five No. 1s: Taylor Swift’s Red (Taylor’s Version) and Midnights, Drake’s Honestly, Nevermind (released via OVO Sound/Republic) and Stray Kids’ ODDINARY and MAXIDENT (JYP/Imperial/Republic).
Billboard’s year-end music Top Labels chart represents aggregated metrics for labels’ performance on the weekly Billboard 200 albums chart and the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart combined during the 2022 charts tracking year: Nov. 20, 2021 through Nov. 12, 2022-dated charts. Any activity registered before or after an album or song’s chart run isn’t considered in this ranking. The individual Billboard 200 Labels and Billboard Hot 100 Labels rankings represent the same measurement, but for each specific chart, during the same tracking period.
For a second consecutive year, and third time in the last four years, Republic lays claim to half of the year-end top 10 Billboard 200 Albums. Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album (Big Loud/Republic) is No. 3, Taylor Swift’s Midnights and Red (Taylor’s Version) are Nos. 4 and 5, Drake’s Certified Lover Boy (OVO Sound/Republic) is No. 9 and The Weeknd’s The Highlights (XO/Republic) is No. 10.
On the weekly Hot 100 during the chart year, Republic placed more chart entries (119), top 40 hits (60), top 10s (21) and No. 1s (five) than any label. The company also boasts the year-end No. 1 Hot 100 Song in Glass Animals’ “Heat Waves” (Wolf Tone/Polydor/Republic). It’s the third time in the last five years where the year’s top Hot 100 Song is from Republic, following The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” (XO/Republic, 2020) and Drake’s “God’s Plan” (Young Money/Cash Money/Republic, 2018).