Chart Beat
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The December 2024 Boxscore report is haunted by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and (likely) Future: Trans-Siberian Orchestra closes out 2024 at No. 1 on Top Tours, just as it did in December of 2023, 2022, 2021, and 2019 (there was no chart in 2020 due to venue closures during COVID-19).
According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, Trans-Siberian Orchestra earned $48.2 million and sold 581,000 tickets from 70 shows between Dec. 1-30. How does one touring act perform 70 shows in 30 days? As has been the case since its 1999 touring debut, TSO employs two ensembles, pushing one to the eastern half of the United States and another to the west. Further, as Christmas approaches, each ensemble ramps up the pace with a matinee and evening performance in each city; for 12 days out of the month, TSO played four shows.
At 70 shows, TSO was four times busier than any of the other 29 artists on December’s Top Tours chart. Pentatonix is the only other act on the ranking that played more than 10 shows in December, with 16 dates on a holiday tour of its own. Even if TSO didn’t have the advantage of being in two places at once, it’d still tower over Pentatonix and everyone else on the survey.
TSO’s annual tour began on Nov. 13 in Council Bluffs, Iowa and Green Bay, Wisc. In all, it played 110 shows in 2024, marking its fullest routing since 2009 (112). It paid off, combining to $69 million, up 1% from last year’s $68.2 million to finish as its biggest year ever. Altogether, TSO has earned $871.4 million and sold 15.8 million tickets since 1999. The ensemble has reported 2,003 concerts, more than any other act in Boxscore history.
Out of 41 cities on the December calendar, TSO grossed more than $1 million in 21. Two shows at Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center on Dec. 22 earned $2.1 million. That’s just the third engagement in the group’s history to eclipse the $2 million threshold, joining stops in Tampa ($2.1 million) and Cleveland ($2 million) from 2023.
Both Cleveland and Tampa were among this year’s biggest markets, with $1.9 million and $1.8 million, respectively. St. Paul, Minn. and Pittsburgh, Penn. joined with $1.8 million each. Five markets sold more than 20,000 tickets, including Rosemont, Ill. and Dallas.
Zach Bryan and George Strait follow on Top Tours, crystalizing a banner year for country acts. Bryan grossed $28.5 million over nine shows in just four markets. Just 31 miles from his hometown of Oologah, Okla., three shows at Tulsa’s BOK Center did the heaviest lifting with $9.4 million on Dec. 12-14.
It’s impressive enough that Bryan is No. 2 from shows in just four cities. But George Strait is No. 3 from the power of just one show. His Dec. 7 concert at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium grossed $23.3 million from 47,600 tickets sold, handily crowning Top Boxscores. The next highest one-night engagement on Top Boxscores is Luis Miguel at No. 18 with less than a quarter of Strait’s massive Vegas pull.
Las Vegas dominates Top Boxscores, clogging the top three positions with variety in terms of genre and size. Following Strait’s country stadium juggernaut, Bruno Mars is No. 2 with six shows from his MGM residency at Dolby Live. Those grossed $16 million and sold 31,900 tickets, pushing the residency’s total earnings to $154.8 million, dating back to its 2016 launch.
Rounding out the Vegas trio, Anyma is No. 3 with the first five of eight shows at Sphere. In between Strait’s stadium and Mars’ theater, Sphere’s arena configuration translated to 84,900 tickets sold from Dec. 27-31, combining to $13.6 million. The Italian American DJ is the first electronic act to headline the famed hall, following rock turns from Dead & Company, the Eagles, Phish, and U2.
Sphere takes two more spots in the top 10, with two weekends with the Eagles at Nos. 9-10. Altogether, those shows earned $18.5 million, making them the fifth-highest grossing act of the month. Sphere ends December at No. 2 on Top Venues (15,001+ capacity), just 2% off from its older sister venue, New York’s Madison Square Garden.
Trans-Siberian Orchestra is not the only holiday act impacting the December Boxscore recap. Perennial favorites Pentatonix and Mariah Carey both hit Top Tours, with $14.2 million and $8.3 million, respectively.
As far as individual events go, Denver’s Decadence New Year’s Eve and New York’s Z100 Jingle Ball both appear on Top Boxscores. In addition to NYE performances from Anyma and Bruno Mars, Phish closed out the year with four shows at Madison Square Garden ($9.6 million) and Billy Joel performed a one-night engagement in Long Island at the UBS Arena ($3.8 million).
And as reliable as TSO, the Rockettes returned to Radio City Music Hall for the annual Christmas Spectacular. No. 1 on Top Venues (5,001-10k capacity), the RCMH earned nearly $100 million from 736,000 tickets sold over 129 December shows.
The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week, for the upcoming Billboard 200 albums chart dated Feb. 8, we look at a bunch of new albums, led by the sequel set from one of last year’s greatest chart breakthrough stories.
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Teddy Swims, I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy (Pt. 2) (SWIMS Int./Warner): Few artists enjoyed a mainstream breakout in 2024 like Teddy Swims, whose megaballad “Lose Control” not only topped the 2024 year-end Billboard Hot 100 after first reaching the chart in late 2023, but which still ranks in the listing’s top 10 this week. That song came from Swims’ debut album I’ve Tried Everything but Therapy (Pt. 1), which reached No. 17 on the Billboard 200 and spawned a second hit in the more uptempo No. 26-peaking “The Door.”
Now, the big-voiced Georgia singer-songwriter is back with that set’s follow-up, logically titled I’ve Tried Everything but Therapy (Pt. 2). The new album is available in eight vinyl variants, including one signed by Swims, as well as standard and signed CD editions, and a standard digital download. The set also features two more chart hits in “Bad Dreams” (No. 57) and Giveon collab “Are You Even Real” (No. 59), with Swims performing the latter on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Jan. 23, just before the album’s release.
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Bad Bunny, Debí Tirar Más Fotos (Rimas): Speaking of Fallon: His recent co-host Bad Bunny should provide the biggest challenge to Swims scoring his first No. 1 on the Billboard 200 next week. Debí Tirar Más Fotos climbed to the chart’s apex — after debuting at No. 2 in an incomplete debut tracking week — and moved a fairly staggering 203,500 units in its second frame, as the critically acclaimed album continued to catch fire on streaming through word of mouth and through a handful of viral hits, most notably quasi-title track “DtMF,” which shot to No. 2 on the Hot 100.
This week, the set has cooled down a little from its blazing start, but remains a major force across streaming – claiming six of the top 25 spots on Apple Music’s real time chart and five of the top 25 on Spotify’s Daily Top Songs USA, including “DtMF” still reigning at No. 1. No tracks from the Swims set are currently even in the top 50 on either chart, which means it will have to sell a tremendous number of physical copies to threaten Bad Bunny’s blockbuster on next week’s chart – a big ask for such a still relatively new artist.
Kane Brown, The High Road (RCA Nashville): A longer-established hitmaker with a new set this week is country star Kane Brown, who has hit the Billboard 200’s top five with each of his top three albums, including 2018s’ chart-topping Experiment. His new set The High Road – not to be confused with recent “High Road” country hits by Zach Bryan and Koe Wetzel & Jessie Murph – features 18 tracks, including already-minted hits “Miles on It” (with EDM star Marshmello) and the Phil Collins-interpolating “I Can Feel It.” The album is available in nine vinyl variants (including signed editions), as well as three d2c-only digital album variants with different cover art, and at leat four CD variants, also including signed editions.
IN THE MIX
Central Cee, Can’t Rush Greatness (CC4L/Columbia): U.K. MC Central Cee has been one of the globe’s hottest rappers for most of the 2020s album, but is only now releasing debut album Can’t Rush Greatness – hence the title. The 17-track set features U.S. rap stars 21 Savage, Lil Durk and Lil Baby, the latter on last year’s top 20 Hot 100 hit “BAND4BAND.” The album should stream well, and has already caused a minor internet fury with its track “5 Star” — which contained rhymes perceived as a diss towards fellow U.K. hip-hop hitmaker Aitch, who responded the same day of its release with his own “A Guy Called?”
FKA twigs, Eusexua (Young/Altantic): Wildly acclaimed for over a decade now, U.K. electro-soul singer-songwriter FKA twigs is back this week with the much-anticipated Eusexua, her first LP since 2022’s Caprisongs. The album is available in six vinyl variants, signed and unsigned CDs, cassette and two digital download variants, one a d2c exclusive with a bonus track. Twigs definitely hasn’t lost her fastball as a critics’ darling, as Eusexua is already one of the year’s strongest-reviewed sets, including a rare 9.1 rating from Pitchfork.
While some artists shoot to the top of the Billboard 200 albums chart with their debut efforts, it sometimes takes years — or decades — to hit No. 1 for the very first time. In the first quarter of the 21st century, we’ve seen a who’s who of acts with illustrious careers on the Billboard […]
Deitrick Haddon achieves his fourth No. 1 on Billboard’s Gospel Airplay chart as “Never Be the Same” ascends to the top of the survey dated Feb. 1. During the Jan. 17-23 tracking week, the song increased by 11% in plays, according to Luminate. “Never Be the Same” was authored solely by Haddon and he co-produced […]
Mac Miller’s Balloonerism bows at No. 1 across multiple Billboard album charts, including Top Album Sales, Top Rap Albums, Vinyl Albums and Indie Store Album Sales. Plus, seven of the album’s tracks dot the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. Balloonerism’s songs date back to 2014, but the project was shelved in favor of other releases.
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Balloonerism is the second No. 1 on Top Album Sales for Miller, who died in 2018. It’s also his third leader on Top Rap Albums, his sixth chart-topper on Vinyl Albums and his first on the Indie Store Album Sales ranking.
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Balloonerism sold a little over 41,000 copies in the U.S. in the tracking week ending Jan. 23, according to Luminate. Vinyl sales comprise the bulk of that sum – 32,000, marking his best sales week ever on vinyl.
Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album (TEA) units and streaming equivalent album (SEA) units.
On Top Album Sales, Miller triumphs over a surging Gracie Abrams, whose The Secret of Us vaults 33-2 with 21,000 sold (up 689% after the vinyl and CD release of a deluxe edition of the album). Rounding out the rest of the top 10: the Wicked soundtrack (moving 2-3), Stray Kids’ HOP (5-4), Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess (3-5), Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet (holding at No. 6), Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft (9-7), ROSÉ’s Rosie (11-8), Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours (13-9) and Tyler, The Creator’s IGOR (15-10).
On the Billboard 200, Balloonerism debuts at No. 3 – the eighth top 10-charting set for Miller on that ranking.
Miller On the R&B/Hip-Hop & Rap Charts: Miller earns his third No. 1 on the Top Rap Albums chart. He first ruled with Blue Slide Park in 2011 and followed with The Divine Feminine in 2016, both of which led for one week. On the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums list, Balloonerism debuts at No. 2 andgives the late rapper his seventh top 10 effort. In addition to the No. 1s Blue Slide Park and The Divine Feminine, he also reached the region with Watching Movies With the Sound Off (No. 3 in 2013); GO:OD AM (No. 2, 2015); Swimming (No. 3, 2018) and Faces (No. 3, 2021).
Seven of Balloonerism’s tracks land on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, led by a No. 16 debut for “Funny Papers.” The arrival instantly makes it Miller’s second-highest peak on the chart among his 23 entries, trailing only the No. 10 best for “Good News” in 2020.
Notable among the other tracks, “5 Dollar Pony Rides” bolts 32-19 in its second week on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and wins the weekly Streaming Gainer and Sales Gainer honors. “DJ’s Chord Organ,” featuring SZA, begins at No. 23 and opens at No. 7 on the Hot R&B Songs chart.
Over On the Billboard Hot 100: On the all-genre, multi-metric Hot 100, four of the album’s songs debut: “Funny Papers” (No. 77), “5 Dollar Pony Rides” (No. 85), “DJ’s Chord Organ” (No. 95) and “Stoned” (No. 97).
Miller Hits a New Peak on the Billboard Artist 100 Chart: Activity surrounding Ballonerism drives Miller 66-2 on the Billboard Artist 100, a new peak for the rapper at his 83rd nonconsecutive week on the chart. The Billboard Artist 100 measures artist activity across key metrics of music consumption – album and track sales, radio airplay and streaming – to provide a weekly multi-dimensional ranking of the most popular artists in the U.S.
Nearly a year after Julia Fox debuted her first single “Down the Drain” at Charli XCX’s February 2024 Boiler Room DJ set, the actress is thinking big when it comes to the future of her music career. In fact, Fox is setting her sights on the Billboard charts. While partnering with MAC for a new […]
There’s a “Sticky” situation atop Billboard’s Rhythmic Airplay chart, as Tyler, The Creator’s single, which features GloRilla, Sexyy Red and Lil Wayne, climbs to No. 1 on the list dated Feb. 1.
The new champion is Tyler, The Creator’s first leader on a Billboard radio chart, more than seven years after his maiden airplay entry, “See You Again,” featuring Kali Uchis, debuted on Rhythmic Airplay in 2017. (Tyler, The Creator made his overall Billboard chart debut in May 2011 when his Goblin album arrived on several charts.)
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The track advances from the runner-up rank and was the most-played song on U.S. panel-contributing rhythmic radio stations in the tracking week of Jan. 17 – 23, according to Luminate, with a 7% jump in plays compared with the prior week.
“Sticky” knocks Kendrick Lamar’s “Squabble Up” from the Rhythmic Airplay throne after the latter’s two weeks in charge.
With the new champ, Tyler, The Creator achieves his first No. 1 on Rhythmic Airplay with his sixth charting title on the radio ranking. The single is easily his most successful at the format, outdoing his prior career best of No. 12 for “Dogtooth” in 2023.
GloRilla and Sexyy Red, meanwhile, land their second and third leaders, respectively, on Rhythmic Airplay. The women share another No. 1 collaboration, “Whatchu Kno About Me,” which reigned for three weeks beginning last December. In addition to that former champ, Sexyy Red also visited the summit when she and SZA featured on Drake’s “Rich Baby Daddy,” a two-week No. 1 in December 2023.
For Lil Wayne, “Sticky” adds a 13th No. 1 to the rap legend’s ledger, moving him into a tie for the fifth-most leaders in the chart’s history. He matches Bruno Mars and Usher’s career totals, and the trio trails only Drake (39), Rihanna (17) and Chris Brown and The Weeknd (14 each) among all acts since the Rhythmic Airplay chart launched in 1992.
Elsewhere, “Sticky” repeats at its No. 8 peak on the Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart, but improved 8% in plays for the week. It reverses 5-4 on Rap Airplay, though it added 6% in total audience impressions during the tracking week.
“Sticky” appears on Tyler, The Creator’s latest studio album, CHROMAKOPIA, which dropped on Oct. 28, 2023. The set debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with the highest first-week total of the rapper/singer’s career and topped the chart for three weeks.
Marshmello and Jonas Brothers’ new collaboration, “Slow Motion,” debuts in the top five of Billboard’s newly-revamped Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart (dated Feb. 1).
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The track enters at No. 4 with 3.1 million official streams, 420,000 all-format radio audience impressions and 1,000 downloads sold in the United States in its first week (ending Jan. 23), according to Luminate. The song was released Jan. 17 via Marshmello’s imprint, Joytime Collective, and Republic Records.
The single earns Marshmello his 19th career top 10 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, the fifth-most in the chart’s history (which dates to January 2013), after Kygo (26), David Guetta (25), the Chainsmokers and Calvin Harris (23 each). Jonas Brothers also notch their first top 10 on the chart.
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“Slow Motion” marks the second collaboration between Marshmello and Jonas Brothers. They previously teamed up for “Leave Before You Love Me” in 2021. That track reached No. 19 on the Billboard Hot 100, as well as the top 10 on Pop Airplay, Adult Pop Airplay and Adult Contemporary.
Meanwhile, Marshmello and Kane Brown spend a 37th week at No. 1 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs with their collaboration, “Miles On It.” That’s the third-longest-leading No. 1 hit in the chart’s history, after Marshmello & Bastille’s “Happier” (69 weeks at No. 1) and David Guetta & Bebe Rexha’s “I’m Good (Blue)” (55).
Elsewhere on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, John Summit’s “Focus,” featuring CLOVES, debuts at No. 5. Released Jan. 17 on Experts Only/Darkroom Records/ICLG, the song debuts on the strength of two million streams earned in its opening week.
Summit scores his third top 10 on the chart, following two No. 8-peaking collaborations with HAYLA: “Where You Are” (2023) and “Shiver” (2024).
Australian singer-songwriter CLOVES added her second entry on Billboard’s rankings. She first charted in 2016 with her breakthrough hit “Don’t Forget About Me,” which reached No. 34 on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs. CLOVES (real name: Kaity Dunstan) has released two full-length projects since: One Big Nothing (2018) and Nightmare on Elmfield Road (2021). She also appeared on the second season of Australia’s The Voice in 2013.
Also in the top 10 of Hot Dance/Electronic Songs: Dxrkaii and Jiandro’s “New Jeans (Jersey Club)” rises 12-10, becoming the first top 10 for each act, thanks to 1.5 million streams (up 15%). The song, whose slowed-down mix has been used in over 20,000 TikToks, reworks NewJeans’ K-pop track “New Jeans.”
As previously reported, Billboard revamped Hot Dance/Electronic Songs as of the chart dated Jan. 18. The 25-position chart ranks the most popular current dance/electronic songs, billed to DJs, producers and long-standing core artists in the dance/electronic genre, with an emphasis on electronic-based production. The same week, Billboard launched the 15-position Hot Dance/Pop Songs chart, which ranks the most popular current dance/pop titles, featuring titles with dance-centric vocals, melody and hooks, by artists not traditionally rooted in the dance/electronic genre.
On Jan. 28, 1995, Alan Jackson’s “Gone Country” hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart.
The track was solely authored by Bob McDill and produced by Keith Stegall. In 2017, Billboard described the song as, lyrically, “reflective of a time period where many artists were coming to Music City from New York, Los Angeles and all points in between. Jackson told the press that he definitely understood the appeal of the format to newcomers and welcomed them all to town. Even so, there was a little bit of gently-placed sarcasm on this one, which helped to make it yet another No. 1.”
“Gone Country” was released as the third of five singles from Jackson’s album Who I Am, which yielded four Hot Country Songs leaders: “Summertime Blues” (three weeks), “Livin’ on Love” (three), “Gone Country” (one week) and “I Don’t Even Know Your Name” (one). Fourth single “Song for the Life” hit No. 6. Who I Am became his second of 14 No. 1s on the Top Country Albums chart.
“Gone Country” marked Jackson’s ninth of 26 No. 1s on Hot Country Songs. Dating to his first, “I’d Love You All Over Again,” in March 1991, he and Tim McGraw boast the most leaders: 26 each.
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Jackson was born Oct. 17, 1958, in Newman, Ga., and moved to Nashville in 1985 to follow his dreams. He became the first artist signed to Arista Records’ then-new country division in June 1989. His first of 84 Hot Country Songs entries, “Blue Blooded Woman,” peaked at No. 45. He followed with his first of 51 top 10s, the No. 3-peaking “Here in the Real World.”
In 1979, Jackson married his high school sweetheart, Denise Jackson (yep, same last name). The couple has been married for 45 years and has three daughters.
On Sept. 28, 2021, in an interview on NBC’s Today with Jenna Bush Hager, Jackson revealed that he had been diagnosed with Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT), a degenerative nerve condition which limits his ability to perform. Inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2017, he released his 21st studio set, Where Have You Gone, in May 2021. It arrived at its No. 2 best on Top Country Albums, becoming his 28th and most recent top 10.
New month, new ruler on Billboard’s Regional Mexican Airplay chart, as Oscar Maydon and Fuerza Regida’s co-billed single “Tu Boda” jumps 5-1 for its first week atop the radio ranking (dated Feb. 1). The new coronation lands two weeks after the song capped its 11-consecutive-week command on Hot Latin Songs.
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“Tu Boda” advances to the summit on Regional Mexican Airplay after a 17% boost in audience impressions, to 7 million, logged in the U.S. in the tracking week of Jan. 17-23, according to Luminate. The collaboration unseats Eden Muñoz’s “Mi Lugar Favorito” which moves to No. 2 after a 6% drop in audience (to 6.6 million).
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As mentioned, “Tu Boda’s” new ascent on Regional Mexican Airplay arrives following its 11-week coronation on the multi-metric Hot Latin Songs chart, which gave Maydon his first champ last November on the list that combines airplay, digital downloads and streaming data into its formula. There, despite a 6% dip in streams (down to 7.6 million official U.S. clicks), the song jumps 20-16 thanks to its radio boost.
Both Maydon and Fuerza Regida add a new No. 1 to their Regional Mexican Airplay career. For Maydon, “Tu Boda” secures the singer-songwriter his second leader, following “Mercedes,” with Becky G, last August. Fuerza Regida collects its fourth (all through team-ups) which begun with three-week ruler “Bebe Dame,” with Grupo Frontera, in March 2023.
While “Tu Boda” also improves with a 17% lift on the overall Latin Airplay ranking, there, it gains 9 million audience impressions, holding it No. 3 high for a second straight week.
All charts (dated Feb. 1, 2025) will update on Billboard.com tomorrow (Jan. 28). For all chart news, you can follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.