Charts
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Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet rises 3-1 on the Billboard 200 chart (dated Oct. 12), notching its fourth nonconsecutive week atop the list. It earned 100,000 equivalent album units in the United States in the week ending Oct. 3 (up less than 1%), according to Luminate.
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Short n’ Sweet debuted at No. 1 on the chart dated Sept. 7, spent its first three weeks at No. 1, and then stepped away for two weeks as Travis Scott’s Days Before Rodeo rode to the top (Sept. 28 chart) and Future’s Mixtape Pluto debuted in the penthouse (Oct. 5 chart).
Also in the top 10, Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft returns to the top five for the first time in more than a month, as it ascends 8-5. The No. 2-peaking set was last in the top five on the Aug. 31 chart, when it ranked at No. 5. The album’s ascent — with a 10% unit gain — is concurrent with the launch of Eilish’s tour on Sept. 29 and the premiere of the official music video for the album’s single “Birds of a Feather” on Sept. 27.
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The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Oct. 12, 2024-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Tuesday (Oct. 8). For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
Of Short n’ Sweet’s 100,000 equivalent album units earned in its third week, SEA units comprise 85,000 (up 1%, equaling 114.24 million on-demand official streams of the album’s 12 songs; it holds at No. 1 on the Top Streaming Albums chart), album sales comprise 14,000 (down 3%) and TEA units comprise 1,000 (down 2%).
Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess is steady at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 for a fourth nonconsecutive week at its peak (63,000 equivalent album units earned; down 40%). Future’s Mixtape Pluto falls 1-2 in its second week (55,000; down 57%), Morgan Wallen’s chart-topping One Thing at a Time rises 5-4 (50,000; down 5%), and Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft steps 8-5 (nearly 50,000; up 10%).
Post Malone’s former leader F-1 Trillion falls 4-6 (47,000 equivalent album units; down 11%); Taylor Swift’s chart-topping The Tortured Poets Department is a non-mover at No. 7 (44,000; down 5%); Noah Kahan’s Stick Season climbs 10-8 (37,000; down 1%); Zach Bryan’s The Great American Bar Scene moves 11-9 (just over 32,000; down 8%); and Wallen’s former No. 1 Dangerous: The Double Album rises 12-10 (32,000; down 5%).
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.
Future notches his 11th No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart — and third in 2024 — as Mixtape Pluto debuts atop the list dated Oct. 5. The long-teased set’s Sept. 20 release date was announced on Sept. 11. Mixtape Pluto earned 129,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Sept. 26, according to Luminate, largely driven by streaming activity.
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Future scored two No. 1s earlier in 2024 with his two co-billed sets with Metro Boomin: We Don’t Trust You (a debut atop the April 6 chart) and We Still Don’t Trust You (also debuting at No. 1, April 27). The last act to notch three new No. 1 albums faster than Future — who has earned his three latest in a span of just six months — was the Glee Cast, which notched three chart-topping soundtracks in less than two months in 2010. If one discounted the Glee titles, as they were soundtracks and not traditional artist-driven albums, the last act to notch three new No. 1s as fast as Future was The Beatles in 1965-66. The Fab Four collected its fifth, sixth and seventh No. 1 albums also in a span of six months, as Beatles VI hit No. 1 on the July 10, 1965 chart, followed by the Help! soundtrack on Sept. 11 and then Rubber Soul on Jan. 8, 1966. (Since the Billboard 200 began publishing on a regular, weekly basis in March of 1956, no other solo artist has accumulated three new No. 1s as fast as Future.)
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With an 11th No. 1 on the Billboard 200, Future ties Eminem, Bruce Springsteen, Barbra Streisand and Ye (formerly Kanye West) for the fifth-most No. 1s on the Billboard 200, dating to March 1956. Ahead of them are The Beatles (a record 19 No. 1s), Jay-Z and Taylor Swift (each with 14) and Drake (13).
Also in the top 10 of the latest Billboard 200 chart, Chappell Roan scores her best week yet in terms of units and album sales, as The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess returns to its peak of No. 2 in the wake of promotion surrounding its first anniversary. Plus, Katy Perry lands her sixth top 10 with the arrival of 143, and Lil Tecca nabs his fourth top 10-charting set with the debut of Plan A.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Oct. 5, 2024-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Tuesday (Oct. 1). For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
Of Mixtape Pluto’s first-week equivalent album units of 129,000, SEA units comprise 118,500 (equaling 156.62 million on-demand official streams of the 17 songs on the streaming edition of the album; it debuts at No. 1 on Top Streaming Albums), album sales comprise 10,000 and TEA units comprise 500. The album was available to purchase either as a standard 11-song album (via download, CD and vinyl) or as an expanded 17-song album (download).
Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess rises 3-2 on the Billboard 200 for a third nonconsecutive week at its peak position. The set earned 105,000 equivalent album units in the tracking week (up 64%) — it’s biggest week yet by units earned. Of that sum, album sales comprise a career weekly-best 56,000 (up 328%; it’s also the top-selling album of the week, reaching No. 1 on Top Album Sales for the first time). The week-over-week growth is owed to the release of four new vinyl variants and a cassette tape in celebration of the album’s first anniversary on Sept. 22. Of the album’s sales, vinyl comprises 50,000 — easily Roan’s best week on vinyl and the sixth-largest week for any vinyl album in 2024.
Sabrina Carpenter’s former No. 1 Short n’ Sweet slips 2-3 on the Billboard 200 with 100,000 equivalent album units earned (down 7%); Post Malone’s chart-topping F-1 Trillion is a non-mover at No. 4 (53,000; down 12%), and Morgan Wallen’s former leader One Thing at a Time is steady at No. 5 (53,000; up 2%).
Katy Perry lands her sixth top 10-charting effort on the Billboard 200 as her new studio album 143 debuts at No. 6. The set earned 48,000 equivalent album units in the tracking week ending Sept. 26. Of that sum, album sales comprise 37,500 (her best sales week since 2017), SEA units comprise 10,000 (equaling 13.11 million streams of the album’s songs) and TEA units comprise 500. The album’s first-week sales were bolstered by its availability across eight vinyl variants (including a signed edition), four CD variants (including a signed edition), a cassette tape and multiple digital download variants (including two exclusive to her webstore, each with bonus tracks).
The album was preceded by a trio of songs, including its first single, “Woman’s World,’ which reached the top 30 on the Pop Airplay, Adult Pop Airplay and Adult Contemporary radio charts.
Taylor Swift’s chart-topping The Tortured Poets Department falls 6-7 on the latest Billboard 200 (47,000 equivalent album units; down 9%), while Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft is steady at No. 8 (45,000; up 2%).
Lil Tecca captures his fourth top 10-charting set on the Billboard 200 as Plan A arrives at No. 9 with 42,000 equivalent album units earned — his biggest week by units since 2019. Of that sum, SEA units comprise 28,500 (equaling 40.45 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs), album sales comprise 13,500 (his best sales week ever) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum. The set’s sales were aided by its availability in two CD variants (including a signed edition) and multiple digital download variants (including three exclusive to the artist’s webstore, two of which included bonus tracks).
The album was preceded by a pair of charting songs on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs: “Number 2” (peaking at No. 45) and “Bad Time” (No. 25).
Closing out the top 10 of the new Billboard 200 is Noah Kahan’s Stick Season, falling 9-10 with 38,000 equivalent album units earned (down 1%).
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.
Travis Scott’s 2014 mixtape Days Before Rodeo reaches No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated Sept. 28), vaulting 106-1 after its vinyl editions — exclusively sold by the artist’s webstore — shipped to customers. The set earned 156,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the tracking week ending Sept. 19 (up 1,295%), according to Luminate.
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Of that sum, traditional album sales comprise 150,000 (making it the top-selling album of the week; it’s No. 1 on Top Album Sales). Vinyl sales comprise 149,000 of that sales figure — Scott’s largest week on vinyl ever. It’s also the biggest week on vinyl for a rap album, as well as the sixth-largest week on vinyl across all genres, since Luminate began tracking sales in 1991.
Days Before Rodeo marks Scott’s fourth No. 1, all earned consecutively. He previously topped the list with Utopia (2023), Astroworld (2018) and Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight (2016).
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Days Before Rodeo was initially a free release in 2014. On Aug. 23, it was commercially released for the first time and officially made its wide streaming debut. The album debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 dated Sept. 7 with 361,000 units earned in the week ending Aug. 29, largely from the strength of album sales (331,000 — mostly from digital download album sales). The album then fell to No. 30 in its second week, and then to No. 106, before jumping to No. 1 in its fourth week of release.
The vinyl sales pushing Scott to No. 1 began generating pre-orders via his official webstore before the album was released on Aug. 23 via streamers, as a digital download and on CD. It was available in two vinyl variants (a standard edition and a deluxe edition in expanded packaging), as well as two boxed sets (one containing a hoodie and the standard vinyl and one with a T-shirt and the deluxe vinyl), and in two Fan Pack offers (one with a hoodie and the standard vinyl and one with a T-shirt and the deluxe vinyl).
A wide retail release beyond Scott’s webstore for any physical formats of the album has not been announced.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Sept. 28, 2024-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Tuesday, Sept. 24. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
Of the 156,000 equivalent album units earned by Days Before Rodeo in the latest tracking week, album sales comprise 150,000 (up 4,608%), SEA units comprise 6,000 (down 25%, equaling 7.94 million on-demand official streams of the album’s songs) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum (down 30%).
Days Before Rodeo is the second album of 2024 to reach No. 1 without having debuted atop the chart. Toby Keith’s 35 Biggest Hits re-entered the chart dated Feb. 17 at No. 1, following his death; the album had previously debuted and peaked at No. 2 in 2008. Before Keith and Scott, the last album to be No. 1 without having debuted at No. 1 was the Encanto soundtrack, which debuted at No. 197 on the Dec. 11, 2021-dated chart, and then rose to No. 1 on the Jan. 15, 2022 list, spending nine nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1.
Days Before Rodeo additionally has the largest jump to No. 1 since the April 30, 2022 chart; when Tyler, the Creator’s Call Me If You Get Lost returned to the top, flying 120-1 after its vinyl release.
Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet slips to No. 2 on the latest Billboard 200 (108,000 equivalent album units; down 8%) after spending its first three weeks atop the chart. It remains at No. 1 on the Top Streaming Albums chart for a fourth week.
Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess is a non-mover at No. 3 (64,000 equivalent album units; up 13%); Post Malone’s former No. 1 F-1 Trillion dips 2-4 (60,000; down 16%); Morgan Wallen’s chart-topping One Thing at a Time falls 4-5 (52,000; up less than 1%); and Taylor Swift’s former leader The Tortured Poets Department descends 5-6 (51,000; down less than 1%).
Eminem’s chart-topping The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) returns to the top 10, surging 42-7, following its deluxe reissue and CD release. The album was reissued via digital download services and streamers on Sept. 13 with bonus tracks, while on the same day its original standard album was issued in two CD variants. In the tracking week ending Sept. 19, The Death of Slim Shady earned 48,000 equivalent album units (up 180%). Of that sum, album sales comprise 24,000 (up 3,328%), SEA units comprise 23,000 (up 43%; equaling 31.64 million on-demand official streams of the album’s songs) and TEA units comprise 1,000 (up 210%).
Rounding out the top 10 of the latest Billboard 200 are Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft (6-8 with 44,000 equivalent album units; down 5%), Noah Kahan’s Stick Season (8-9 with 38,000; up 2%) and Zach Bryan’s The Great American Bar Scene (7-10 with nearly 38,000; down 1%).
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.
Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet scores a third consecutive week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated Sept. 21), becoming the second album to spend its first three weeks atop the list in 2023. Only Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department also spent its first three frames atop the list in 2024, of its total 15 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1.
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Short n’ Sweet earned 117,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Sept. 12 (down 25%), according to Luminate — largely driven by streaming activity of the album’s 12 songs.
Also in the top 10 of the Billboard 200, David Gilmour achieves his third solo top 10 album, as his first studio effort in nine years, Luck and Strange, bows at No. 10.
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The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Sept. 21, 2024-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Tuesday (Sept. 17). For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
Of Short n’ Sweet’s 117,000 equivalent album units earned in its third week, SEA units comprise 101,000 (down 20%, equaling 134.79 million on-demand official streams of the album’s 12 songs; it holds at No. 1 on the Top Streaming Albums chart), album sales comprise 15,000 (down 45%) and TEA units comprise 1,000 (down 5%).
Nos. 2-6 on the Billboard 200 are all non-movers. Post Malone’s former leader F-1 Trillion ranks at No. 2 (72,000 equivalent album units earned; down 16%); Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess is No. 3 (57,000; down 7%); Morgan Wallen’s chart-topping One Thing at a Time places at No. 4 (52,000; down 7%); Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department is No. 5 (51,000; down 3%); and Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft is No. 6 (47,000; down 3%).
Zach Bryan’s The Great American Bar Scene rises one spot to No. 7 with 38,000 equivalent album units earned (down 2%), Noah Kahan’s Stick Season climbs 9-8 with 38,000 (down 3%) and Wallen’s former leader Dangerous: The Double Album ascends 11-9 with 32,000 (down 5%).
David Gilmour rounds out the new top 10, as his first studio album in nine years, Luck and Strange, debuts at No. 10. It’s his third solo top 10-charting effort. He previously visited the top 10 with the solo sets Rattle That Lock (No. 5 in 2015) and On an Island (No. 6, 2006).
The new album earned 32,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Sept. 12. Of that sum, album sales comprise 30,000 (it’s the top-selling album of the week and bows at No. 1 on Top Album Sales), SEA units comprise 2,000 units (equaling 2.17 million on-demand streams of the set’s songs) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum. The album’s first-week sales were bolstered by its availability across four vinyl variants (which combined to sell 8,500 copies), two CD variants and a Blu-ray Audio configuration.
Gilmour is also a member of Pink Floyd, and all 10 of iconic rock band’s top 10-charting albums (from 1973’s No. 1 The Dark Side of the Moon through 2014’s The Endless River) reached the region after Gilmour joined the band in 1967. (The Dark Side of the Moon holds the record for the most weeks on the Billboard 200 of any album in the chart’s history — 990 weeks — having most recently made the list in May.)
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.
A dance classic of the late aughts has been pushed back onto the charts by a pair of recent plays.
On the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart dated Sept. 7, La Roux‘s 2009 hit “Bulletproof” sits at No. 13 amid its fifth week on the chart, down from a peak position at No. 10.
The 15-year old song arrived on this chart due to a recent streaming surge caused by two unrelated uses. The first was a February commercial for the allergy medication Allegra, in which a woman sings the song acapella in an ode to how it apparently makes her bulletproof against allergens.
Streaming then surged enough for the song to chart after July 21, when Kodak Black posted a TikTok of himself vibing (and also brushing his teeth) to the track in a viral video that’s since been liked more then three million times.
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This Tiktok caused a “Bulletproof” streaming jump from 707,000 to 1.8 million in the week ending July 25, and then to 3.5 million in the week ending Aug. 1, according to Luminate. The most recent comments on the 2010 “Bulletproof” music video on YouTube state that viewers arrived to the clip because of Black’s influence. (“The culture came back to this after Kodak Black,” one commenter wrote. “S–t was a banger back then.”)
While the bubbly, defiant song by the English duo was a hit on the Billboard Hot 100 upon its release on June 21, 2009, this current run marks its first appearance on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, which launched in 2013, four years after the track’s release.
Initially a hit in the United Kingdom, “Bulletproof” first reached a U.S. Billboard chart on Aug. 1, 2009, when it entered Dance Club Songs at No. 38, ultimately hitting No. 1 on the chart that September. The synth pop anthem also soared on the Hot 100, cracking the top 10 in March of 2010 when it reached No. 8. It went on to spend a whopping 27 weeks on the chart. The song was also a hit on Dance/Mix Show Airplay, where it spent 14 weeks in 2009/2010, peaking at No. 10.
The song came from the duo’s 2009 self-titled debut album, which also contained the hit “In It For the Kill.” This past June, La Roux’s Elly Jackson recently acknowledged the album’s 15-year anniversary, writing on Instagram that “this album is complex for me… without it life would be very different but it took a lot out of me that’s taken years to get back. Never thought it would take this long, so weird to think it’s fifteen years ago… I’m not even sure I can process that but here we are. Thank you to everyone that’s loved and still loves this record. My deep cuts are ‘quicksand’ and ‘colourless colour,’ let me know yours.”
Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet stays steady atop the Billboard 200 (dated Sept. 14) for a second week, after opening at No. 1 a week ago. In its second frame, the album earned 159,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Sept. 5 (down 56%), according to Luminate.
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That 159,000-unit sum is substantial for an album’s second week in recent times. In the last 12 months, only three other albums have logged a second week as big as Short n’ Sweet’s. Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department tallied 439,000 units in its second week (chart dated May 11; down from its 2.61 million-unit debut), Swift’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version) earned 245,000 in its second week (Nov. 18, 2023; down from 1.653 million), and Drake’s For All the Dogs earned 164,000 in its second week (Oct. 28, 2023; down from 402,000).
Notably, Republic Records is the distributing label of all four albums. Short n’ Sweet was released via Island/Republic, For All the Dogs was issued via OVO Sound/Republic, and Swift’s two albums are straight Republic titles.
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Also in the top 10 of the new Billboard 200, LE SSERAFIM captures it third top 10-charting effort with the No. 7 arrival of CRAZY, while Destroy Lonely achieves his first top 10 as Love Lasts Forever enters at No. 10.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Sept. 14, 2024-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Tuesday (Sept. 10). For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
Of Short n’ Sweet’s 159,000 equivalent album units earned in its second week, SEA units comprise 126,000 (down 28%, equaling 168.45 million on-demand official streams of the album’s 12 songs; it holds at No. 1 on the Top Streaming Albums chart, as well), album sales comprise 32,000 (down 83%) and TEA units comprise 1,000 (down 38%).
Post Malone’s former leader F-1 Trillion (released via Mercury/Republic) rises one rung to No. 2 with 86,000 equivalent album units earned (down 23%), Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess (KRA/Amusement/Island/Republic) is up a spot to No. 3 with 64,000 (down 10%), Morgan Wallen’s chart-topping One Thing at a Time (Big Loud/Mercury/Republic) steps 5-4 with 55,000 (down 5%) and Swift’s former No. 1 The Tortured Poets Department climbs 6-5 with 54,000 (down 6%).
Republic Records holds the entire top five titles — a feat that it’s achieved four times. Republic remains the only label to claim the entire top five since the Billboard 200 combined its previously separate mono and stereo album charts into one all-encompassing chart in August 1963. Republic previously controlled the top five on the Jan. 13 and 20, 2024, charts, and on the Dec. 9, 2023-dated list.
Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft rises one rung to No. 6 on the latest Billboard 200, earning 49,000 equivalent album units (down 7%).
LE SSERAFIM’s CRAZY debuts at No. 7 with 47,000 equivalent album units earned, landing the Korean pop ensemble its third top 10-charting effort — and largest week by units earned. Of its starting sum, album sales comprise 38,000 (it’s No. 1 on the Top Album Sales chart), SEA units comprise 9,000 (equaling 12.08 million on-demand official streams of the set’s five songs; with over half of that sum driven by the title track) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum. CRAZY’s first-week was bolstered by its availability across more than 20 CD variants, all containing collectible branded paper ephemera such as photocards, postcards, stickers, and posters.
Noah Kahan’s Stick Season rises 10-8 on the latest Billboard 200, with 40,000 equivalent album units earned (up 7%) in the week ending Sept. 5. The set’s gain is concurrent with the Aug. 30 arrival of Kahan’s new album, Live From Fenway Park.
Zach Bryan’s The Great American Bar Scene is a non-mover at No. 9 on the new Billboard 200 with 39,000 equivalent album units earned (down 6%).
Rapper Destroy Lonely lands his first top 10-charting set on the Billboard 200 as his second studio album, Love Lasts Forever, bows at No. 10 with 37,500 equivalent album units earned — his best week by units. Of its starting sum, album sales comprise 19,000, SEA units comprise 18,500 (equaling 25.19 million on-demand official streams of the album’s songs) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum. The album’s first week was bolstered by its availability in a signed CD edition and two digital download album variants — all exclusive to the artist’s webstore. The latter two were each sold for $5 and each included five additional bonus songs (five different songs per variant).
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.
Travis Scott was fired up. “IM FCKING JUMPING THRU WALLS,” he wrote on Instagram. The reason: He planned to officially re-release Days Before Rodeo, his decade-old pre-stardom mixtape, on streaming services on August 23.
Sabrina Carpenter‘s Short n’ Sweet was slated to come out the same day, and before Scott’s announcement, it was expected to coast to the top of the Billboard 200 albums chart — an inevitable coronation after a string of high-flying singles. Instead, Carpenter’s release squeaked out a No. 1 finish, earning 362,000 units to Scott’s 361,000.
Short n’ Sweet out-streamed the rapper’s old mixtape by a wide margin, racking up 233 million official on-demand streams to Scott’s 40.6 million. But remarkably, he sold 300,000 digital downloads of Days Before Rodeo, according to Luminate. On the final day of the tracking week, Scott put out six different digital variations of his album — each of which included at least two extra tracks and cost just $4.99, the minimum price for chart eligibility — as part of a ferocious last-ditch attempt to snatch victory from Carpenter. She responded in kind, serving up three $4.99 digital variants of her own and ultimately selling 45,000 digital downloads. (All nine variants were available exclusively on the artists’ web stores.)
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This tactic has been around for years: Release digital variants near the end of the week; sell them cheap; polish off a rival; tout the accomplishment. The technique is getting more attention lately because clashes between titans are being decided by digital variant release strategies. Scott was nearly able to erase Carpenter’s mile-wide streaming lead thanks in part to his blitz of variants. And these duels have spurred the latest round of music industry conversations about whether artists and labels are trying to game the charts — or take advantage of their most devoted followers.
“People are keeping that ammo in the chamber: ‘Let’s save these four variants that we know we’re going to have to drop at different times throughout this week,’” says one major-label A&R who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. “Does it enhance the fan experience, or does it actually lessen it? I think it’s manipulative.”
When asked about this practice, another prominent manager would say only that “it’s ironic that the institution which is allowing the problem to exist is reaching out for a quote.” (“Billboard is always reviewing, in consultation with Luminate and the industry at large, what sales channels are included for chart eligibility, and has updated its policies when necessary based on market behavior,” Silvio Pietroluongo, Billboard‘s executive vp of charts and data partnerships, said in a statement.)
On the other hand, some label executives believe that digital variants help create eye-catching first-week totals and race-to-the-finish-line dramas that are good for the music industry, sort of like its version of Barbenheimer: Before Taylor Swift’s showdown with Billie Eilish in May and Carpenter vs. Scott more recently, it had been a whopping eight years since two albums cracked the 300,000-unit mark during the same week.
And the contest between Carpenter and Scott was a nail-biter until the end, as both camps released their final variant in the last two hours of the tracking week. Since January 2020, there have only been seven weeks when the gap between Nos. 1 and 2 was less than 1,000 units. (Representatives for Carpenter and Scott did not respond to requests for comment.)
Despite the prominence of digital albums in some recent release campaigns, digital album sales have plummeted from 103.3 million in 2015 to 18.3 million in 2023, according to Luminate’s annual reports. Within this category, Luminate also tracks an “others” grouping that reflects sales from artists’ direct-to-consumer web stores along with non-major digital retailers. So far this year, sales in “others” total just 1.7 million, which amounts to 0.23% of year-to-date total album consumption (730.45 million equivalent album units*).
While this represents a tiny sliver of overall activity, it can make a difference in close chart races. Swift released additional digital variants when she went head to head with Eilish and against Ye and Ty Dolla $ign‘s Vultures 2 in August. (Eilish and Ye and Ty released their own as well, to no avail.) And Blink-182 used a digital variant of One More Time as part of a successful effort to scrape by Drake‘s For All the Dogs and nab No. 1 in October.
These face-offs also demonstrate how far labels and artists are willing to go to try to get that top spot. Getting a No. 1 demonstrates that labels “still have the ability to move the needle,” says industry veteran Ray Daniels. “That is a big reason why certain artists will go to certain labels.” And “ego is a lot of it,” adds Joey Arbagey, a former major-label A&R executive.
Most prominent artists want to top the chart as well, though they may be loath to admit it. “It’s a way of an artist on the rise saying they have arrived,” Daniels says. And scoring a No. 1 can then serve as a springboard, creating “a domino effect of other opportunities, whether that’s working with brands or getting significant press,” according to Nick Groff, an artist manager and former A&R.
In more recent years, artists and labels have used hyper-aggressive price discounting, bundling albums with tickets or merchandise, box sets, vinyl variants and other techniques to try to jack up an album’s chart position. (There are dissenters: “It’s crazy how much time and energy is wasted on shit like this,” says one former major label executive, practically eye-rolling through the phone, “instead of focusing on signing good artists and making good music.”) When chart rules change, so do the industry’s strategies for impacting them.
Some of these options disappeared in 2020 after Billboard stopped counting albums sold in merchandise bundles and ticket bundle offers. Label executives say selling digital variant downloads is one of the few maneuvers they have left to goose numbers late in a chart week. The other is putting a deluxe version of the album with additional tracks on streaming services, also an increasingly common tactic.
But adding an unreleased track or two onto the album and selling it exclusively through an artist’s web store is a more potent option. This can also be done quickly and at the last minute, as a Hail Mary when a chart race suddenly becomes competitive. Acts usually make these releases available for a limited time only, which both further juices fan interest and underscores that the artists are focusing on the all-important release week.
In many cases, this strategy is effectively a sale of a lone song masquerading as an album purchase — artists often just add one live track or unreleased loosie to the original project and make it available as a new variant. Some artists don’t even include a new song in a digital variant; they just change up the artwork, or digitally “sign” the album art.
“If there is exclusive music available in these variant releases, that can be a great strategy and a fun way to engage with your fan base,” says Greg Hirschhorn, founder of the distribution company Too Lost. “If there is only a change in the track list or a different album artwork, I feel like the only real goal or outcome is chart manipulation.”
Steeply discounted digital variants also threaten to snub the diehards who ordered an album ahead of time at full price. If a fan pays $9.99 for a pre-order on iTunes, they may feel like a sucker when they see the same album augmented with bonus material and made available for just $4.99 near the end of the tracking week. “It feels like people should wait until Thursday afternoon to buy the album” and get the best deal, the major-label A&R says.
But for now, any potential fan backlash to the rise of variants appears to be outweighed by their impact on the charts. “When you’re in it and you’re fighting so hard for No. 1, it can seem obnoxious [to people outside the industry], but that’s the only thing that matters,”Arbagey says. “They’re pulling out all the stops.”
“I’ve definitely been in one of those heated races,” Groff adds. “You figure out everything you can possibly do to boost the numbers.”
*Through the week ending Aug. 29, total U.S. album consumption in 2024, as represented by equivalent album units — excluding units caused by user generated content — equals 730.45 million, according to Luminate. Each equivalent album unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album.
Sabrina Carpenter’s new studio album, Short n’ Sweet, blasts in atop the Billboard 200 (dated Sept. 7), while all 12 songs from the set hit the Billboard Hot 100.
The set debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 362,000 equivalent album units earned in the United States its opening week (Aug. 23-29), according to Luminate. Carpenter earns her first career leader, which opens with the third-largest debut, by units, of 2024.
Concurrently, all 12 songs on Short n’ Sweet land on the Hot 100, including three in the top five and 11 in the top 40. Here’s a recap (with all songs debuts except where noted):
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No. 2, “Taste”
No. 3, “Please Please Please” (up from No. 9; spent one week at No. 1, becoming Carpenter’s first Hot 100 leader, in June)
No. 4, “Espresso” (up from No. 7; peaked at No. 3 in June)
No. 14, “Bed Chem”
No. 15, “Good Graces”
No. 21, “Sharpest Tool”
No. 22, “Juno”
No. 26, “Coincidence”
No. 27, “Slim Pickins”
No. 32, “Dumb & Poetic”
No. 35, “Don’t Smile”
No. 41, “Lie to Girls”
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Carpenter becomes just the third woman to chart at least three songs in the Hot 100’s top five simultaneously, after Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande. The only other acts to log at least three entries in the top five simultaneously are The Beatles, 50 Cent, Justin Bieber, Drake and 21 Savage.
As “Taste,” “Please Please Please” and “Espresso” mark Carpenter’s first three top five Hot 100 hits, she becomes only the second act to ever chart her first three top five hits in the region simultaneously. She joins only The Beatles, who first tripled up on the chart dated March 7, 1964, with “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” “She Loves You” and “Please Please Me” at Nos. 1, 2 and 4, respectively.
With 10 debuts, Carpenter ups her count to 15 career Hot 100 entries. Along with “Espresso” and “Please Please Please,” she previously charted with “Feather” (No. 21 peak in April), “Nonsense” (No. 56, 2023) and “Skin” (No. 48, 2021).
Plus, with 13 Hot 100 entries in 2024, Carpenter ties Grande for the third-most among women, after Swift (36; the most among all acts) and Beyoncé (23).
Post Malone’s first country album, F-1 Trillion, rolls in at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart (dated Aug. 31) with 250,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Aug. 22, according to Luminate. It’s the sixth top 10, and third No. 1 for the artist. He last led the list with Hollywood’s Bleeding in 2019, which racked up five weeks atop the list. He first reigned with Beerbongs & Bentleys, for three weeks in 2018.
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The standard edition of the F-1 Trillion album was released on Aug. 16 and has 18 songs, 15 of which are collaborations with country stars ranging from Dolly Parton and Hank Williams Jr., to Brad Paisley and Blake Shelton, to HARDY and Morgan Wallen. Later on Aug. 16, F-1 Trillion garnered a deluxe reissue, dubbed the “Long Bed” edition, with nine additional solo Post Malone tracks.
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F-1 Trillion also leads the Top Country Albums — where it’s Post Malone’s first entry — and the Top Streaming Albums and Top Album Sales tallies.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Aug. 31, 2024-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Aug. 27. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
F-1 Trillion debuts with 250,000 equivalent album units earned — the second-largest week for any country album in 2024. Only Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter earned a bigger week this year among country sets, when it opened in April with 407,000 units.
Of F-1 Trillion’s first-week sum of 250,000 units, SEA units comprise 164,000 (equaling 212.86 million on-demand official streams of the deluxe album’s 27 songs), album sales comprise 80,000 and TEA units comprise 6,000. The album’s first-week sales were bolstered by its availability across four vinyl editions (a standard black vinyl and three color variants; which combined to sell 25,000 — Post Malone’s best week on vinyl), a cassette and a CD, in addition to explicit and clean digital download albums for the standard 18-song version and the 27-song “Long Bed” version.
F-1 Trillion was led by the crossover hit “I Had Some Help,” featuring country superstar Wallen. The single spent six weeks atop the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 chart, in May-July, reached No. 1 on the all-genre Streaming Songs chart, and topped both the Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay tallies. It also crowned the all-genre Radio Songs airplay ranking and hit No. 1 on both the Pop Airplay and Adult Pop Airplay charts. “Help” was followed by two further preview tracks from the album before the full-length set dropped: “Pour Me a Drink,” featuring Shelton, and “Guy for That,” featuring Luke Combs. Both reached the top 20 on the Hot 100 and the top 10 on Hot Country Songs.
Reflecting their latest sonic turns, Post Malone is the second artist, following Beyoncé, to lead the Top Country Albums chart in 2024 with a first entry after having reached No. 1 on other genre-specific album charts with earlier albums. Between 2017 and 2022, Post Malone claimed four No. 1s on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (with Stoney, Beerbongs & Bentleys, Hollywood’s Bleeding and Twelve Carat Toothache), and also led the Top Rock & Alternative Albums chart in 2023 (with Austin). Earlier in 2024, Beyoncé made her first visit to Top Country Albums with Cowboy Carter, leading the list for four weeks in April-May. Beyoncé previously logged eight No. 1s on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart as a soloist in 2003-22.
Post Malone leads an otherwise sleepy top 10 on the new Billboard 200, as F1-Trillion is the only debut in the region. Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess holds at its No. 2 high for a second week, earning 72,000 equivalent album units (down 1%), while Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department falls to No. 3, after 15 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1, with 62,000 (down 27%). Wallen’s chart-topping One Thing at a Time dips 3-4 with 60,000 (down 5%) and Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft descends 4-5 with 53,000 (down 8%).
Zach Bryan’s The Great American Bar Scene drops 5-6 with 44,000 equivalent album units earned (down 8%); Charli XCX’s Brat slips 6-7 with 41,000 (down 14%); Noah Kahan’s Stick Season falls 7-8 with 38,000 (down 2%); Wallen’s former No. 1 Dangerous: The Double Album descends 8-9 with 36,000 (down 5%); and Bryan’s self-titled leader is a non-mover at No. 10 with 33,000 (down less than 1%).
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.
Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department reaches a 15th week atop the Billboard 200 chart (dated Aug. 24) — tying Carole King’s Tapestry for the third-most weeks at No. 1 among albums by women. The latter spent 15 frames at No. 1 in 1971. Only Adele’s 21 (24 weeks in 2011-12) and the Whitney Houston-led soundtrack to The Bodyguard (20 weeks in 1992-93) have more weeks at No. 1 among women.
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Tortured Poets earned 85,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Aug. 15 (down 40%), according to Luminate.
Meanwhile, in a quiet top 10 (where no albums debut for the second time in three weeks), Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess hits a new peak for the third week in a row, as it climbs 3-2 with 72,000 units (up 13%), a new weekly high, by units, for the set.
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The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Aug. 24, 2024-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Aug. 20. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
Of The Tortured Poets Department’s 85,000 units earned in the week ending Aug. 15, SEA units comprise 57,000 (down 1%, equaling 74.77 on-demand official streams of the set’s widely available deluxe edition’s 31 songs), album sales comprise 28,000 (down 67%) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum (up 5%). On the Top Streaming Albums chart, Poets falls 2-3 and on the Top Album Sales chart, it clocks an eighth week at No. 1.
With Tortured Poets — Swift’s longest-leading album on the Billboard 200 — she adds her 84th career week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, extending her record among soloists. (Elvis Presley has the second-most among soloists, with 67.) The total encompasses her 14 No. 1 albums. (She’s tied with Jay-Z for the most No. 1s among soloists.)
In the tracking week of Aug. 9-15, news continued to emerge from the foiled terror attack on Swift’s cancelled Eras Tour dates in Vienna. The three Vienna dates (Aug. 8-10) were nixed on Aug. 7 and were the first cancelled shows of the tour, which began on March 17, 2023. On Aug. 15, the tour continued on to its scheduled five-night stand at London’s Wembley Stadium (Aug. 15-17, 19-20), for The Eras Tour’s final shows in Europe.
During the last day (Aug. 15) of the chart’s tracking week, Swift introduced one all-new digital album variant of Poets on her official webstore, which was available for six hours and sold for $4.99. The set included the standard album’s 16 songs, plus one exclusive bonus track, “The Prophecy (Long Story Short – Live From Lyon),” recorded during The Eras Tour on June 2.
Also on Aug. 15, for only six hours, Swift’s webstore restocked a $4.99 digital album variant that was available briefly the previous tracking week — it contained the standard album’s 16 songs plus a live version of “thank You aimEe (Mean – Live from London),” recorded on June 22 during her The Eras Tour. In the previous tracking week, the same digital album variant was sold in Swift’s webstore, but with one slight difference — the stylization of the letters in the title of bonus live song. It was initially stylized as “thanK you aIMee” (mirroring the studio version on the Poets album), and then on Aug. 15, its stylization changed to “thank You aimEe.” The capitalization of the specific letters in the title — KIM and YE — could reference Kim Kardashian and her ex-husband (and longtime Swift foe), Ye, formerly Kanye West.
In the tracking week ending Aug. 15, Tortured Poets sold nearly 10,000 in digital album downloads across all variants through all sellers (including her webstore, the iTunes Store and others). Even if Poets had not sold a single digital album in the latest tracking week, it still would have been No. 1 on the Billboard 200. The No. 2 title, Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, trails Poets by 13,000 units.
As for The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, the album reaches a new peak for a third week in a row, as it steps 3-2 with 72,000 equivalent album units earned (its best week by units earned; up 13%). In the last 10 weeks, the album has steadily inched its way up the list. It broke into the top 10 on the June 22-dated chart, rising 12-10. It has since moved 8-6-5-5-7-8-4-3-2.
The 3-2 ascent for Rise reflects the tracking week that contained a buzzy festival performance from Roan — her Aug. 11 gig at Outside Lands in San Francisco. The latter generated a quasi-viral moment where she chastised the VIP section for not singing along to the album’s “Hot To Go!”
Morgan Wallen’s chart-topping One Thing at a Time dips 4-3 on the latest Billboard 200 with 63,000 equivalent album units earned (up 1%). It also claims a ninth nonconsecutive week at No. 1 on the Top Streaming Albums chart.
Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft steps 5-4 on the Billboard 200 with 57,000 (up 1%), while Zach Bryan’s The Great American Bar Scene climbs 7-5 with 48,000 (though down 6%).
Charli XCX’s Brat is a non-mover at No. 6 (47,000; down 16%); Noah Kahan’s Stick Season steps 9-7 (just over 38,000; up 3%); Wallen’s former No. 1 Dangerous: The Double Album is stationary at No. 8 (38,000; up 2%); Twisters: The Album rises 10-9 (34,000; down 7%); and Zach Bryan’s self-titled chart-topper returns to the top 10, climbing 12-10 (nearly 34,000; up 6%).
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.