Billboard is counting down the Top Artists of 2024, as based on weekly chart activity, as we build toward the Billboard Music Awards on Thursday (Dec. 12) and the reveal of nearly 500 year-end charts on Friday (Dec. 13).
Starting Monday (Dec. 9), we’re unveiling the No. 10 and No. 9 acts on the year-end Top Artists recap – and they are no strangers to massive chart success.
On Tuesday (Dec. 10), we’ll reveal the Nos. 8 and 7 acts, and then on Wednesday, we’ll announce the No. 6 top artist.
The No. 1 top artist, among the top five finalists, will be revealed at the 2024 Billboard Music Awards. Tune in to the show on Thursday to find out who the year’s top artist is, and then return to Billboard.com on Friday to learn the entire top 10 (and complete 100 Top Artists), in ranked order. Beyond the Top Artists category, nearly 500 other year-end charts will be unleashed on Friday, including recaps for the year’s top new artist, Billboard 200 albums, Billboard Hot 100 songs and Billboard Global 200 songs.
But first, the fine print: Billboard’s year-end music recaps represent aggregated metrics for each artist, title, label and music contributor on the weekly charts from Oct. 28, 2023, through Oct. 19, 2024. Rankings for Luminate-based recaps reflect equivalent album units, airplay, sales or streaming during the weeks that the titles appeared on a respective chart during the tracking year. Any activity registered before or after a title’s chart run isn’t considered in these rankings. That methodology detail, and the October-October time period, account for some of the difference between these lists and the calendar-year recaps that are independently compiled by Luminate. The Top Artists category ranks the best-performing acts of the year based on activity on the all-genre Billboard 200 albums chart and all-genre Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, as well as Billboard Boxscore (touring), for the 2024 tracking period.
Below, find the No. 10 and No. 9 artists of 2024.
10. Kendrick Lamar
Image Credit: Dave Free
Kendrick Lamar closes 2024 at No. 10 on Billboard’s year-end Top Artists ranking – powered not by his new album GNX, but rather his sustained weekly Billboard 200 albums chart performance of four earlier albums, plus four hits on the weekly Billboard Hot 100 songs chart. (GNX debuted on the Billboard 200 at No. 1 on the Dec. 7, 2024-dated chart – more than a month after the 2024 year-end eligibility closed. The 2024 chart year ran from the charts dated Oct. 28, 2023, through Oct. 19, 2024.) GNX’s chart performance, along with its hit singles, including the Hot 100 No. 1 “Squabble Up,” will factor into the 2025 year-end charts.
2024 is only the second year in which Lamar has placed among the year’s top 10 on Top Artists; he last did so in 2017 when he wrapped at No. 4 (bolstered by that year’s No. 1 Billboard 200 album DAMN. and its No. 1 Hot 100 hit “Humble”).
During the 2024 chart year, four of Lamar’s previous albums – DAMN.; good kid, m.A.A.d city; Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers; and To Pimp a Butterfly – all spent time on the tally. Both DAMN. and good kid were top 20-charting titles in 2024 and hung out on the weekly chart for the full 52 weeks of the chart year.
On the Hot 100 during the chart year, Lamar notched four entries, two of which debuted at No. 1: “Like That” (with Future and Metro Boomin) and “Not Like Us,” as well as the No. 3-peaking “Euphoria” and the No. 12-peaking “Meet the Grahams.” (The four tracks were among a blitz of back-and-forth diss tracks between Lamar and Drake.) “Like That” and “Not Like Us” marked Lamar’s third and fourth career No. 1s on the chart and brought him back to the top slot for the first time since 2017’s “Humble.”
9. Post Malone
Image Credit: Adam DeGross
After a year that saw the sonically versatile Post Malone capture two No. 1s on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, and a new No. 1 album on the Billboard 200, he closes 2024 at No. 9 on the year-end Top Artists ranking. It’s the second straight year he’s been among the top 10.
During the 2024 eligibility period, Post Malone collected his first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 in five years, as his debut country set, F-1Trillion, launched atop the tally dated Aug. 31, 2024. Its lead single, “I Had Some Help,” featuring Morgan Wallen, spent six weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100 – the second-most weeks atop the list of Post Malone’s six career leaders. “I Had Some Help” debuted atop the Hot 100 dated May 25, just two weeks after he ruled the list for two weeks through his featured turn on Taylor Swift’s “Fortnight.”
During the chart year, the singer-songwriter placed six albums on the weekly Billboard 200, including F-1 Trillion. Five of his earlier sets also spent time on the tally, with his 2023 best-of The Diamond Collection racking up 46 frames on the list during the chart year. On the Hot 100, he had a total of 21 charting titles, including 18 from F-1 Trillion.
Post Malone has ranked in the year-end Top Artists top 10 recap in five years: 2024 (No. 9), 2023 (No. 10), 2020 (No. 1), 2019 (No. 1) and 2018 (No. 2).
