year end 2024
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In 2017, Imagine Dragons started a trend that has continued every year since on Billboard’s year-end Top Rock & Alternative Artists chart.
It’s never obvious at first. An act has a big year, big enough that they reign supreme above all other rock and/or alternative artists in the U.S. Well and good, but by the time they’re crowned atop Billboard’s year-end charts, the clock has reset anew, and there’s no guarantee they’ll end up on top of the fray yet again the following year.
Except that’s exactly what’s happened in every two-year period since, a trend that continues in 2024, with Zach Bryan the year’s No. 1 on Top Rock & Alternative Artists.
Explore All of Billboard’s 2024 Year-End Charts
After Imagine Dragons led in both 2017 and ’18, Panic! at the Disco followed in 2019-20. Glass Animals topped the list in 2021 and ’22, with Bryan ascending to the top in 2023, a spot he holds again this year.
Bryan, the folky troubadour whose music blurs the line between rock and country singer-songwriter fare, premiered a new album, The Great American Bar Scene, on July 4. Music from that set – including one-week Hot Rock & Alternative Songs No. 1 “Pink Skies” – certainly helped his fortunes on both the Top Rock & Alternative Artists and Top Country Artists (where he’s No. 2) for the year, but much like fellow country heavy-hitters Morgan Wallen and Chris Stapleton, it’s important to look beyond music that was released during the chart year.
Indeed, “I Remember Everything,” Bryan’s duet with Kacey Musgraves from his 2023 self-titled album, is No. 1 on a variety of year-end charts for 2024, including – but certainly not limited to – the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs and Hot Rock Songs lists, as well as the all-genre Streaming Songs survey. Released in September 2023, the song reigned on the weekly Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart for 30 weeks through March of this year and didn’t fall off the survey until October. Even as The Great American Bar Scene’s tracklist roared onto the charts in July, “I Remember Everything” persisted; it’s only spent a handful of weeks outside Streaming Songs’ top 20 since release.
Bryan also notches multiple appearances on the year-end Top Rock & Alternative Albums chart; Zach Bryan leads the way at No. 2, followed by 2022’s American Heartbreak (No. 5), The Great American Bar Scene (No. 12), 2020’s Elisabeth (No. 20), 2022 EP Summertime Blues (No. 25) and 2023 EP Boys of Faith (No. 64). And on the year-end Rock Streaming Songs, he boasts the top two (“I Remember Everything” and 2022’s “Something in the Orange”) and 13 of the 50 total entries.
Bryan’s 2024 coronation continues another rising trend on Top Rock & Alternative Artists: the domination of soloists. After years of leads by bands, Bryan’s 2023 rule was the exclamation point on a year when the entire top 10 were solo acts, a first for the genre.
In 2024, soloists are still in vogue, but bands took back some territory, with two of the top 10 groups of two or more. One of those is Fleetwood Mac (No. 9), the classic rock act who remains a streaming force in the ‘20s, with “Dreams” No. 7 on the year-end Rock Streaming Songs survey. The other? Linkin Park (No. 8), which returns to the top 10 for the first time since 2017.
The story of Linkin Park’s resurgence began in 2023, when it vaulted to No. 16 on Top Rock & Alternative Artists after appearing at No. 50 in 2022, mostly on the strength of catalog sales and streams. The band was No. 3 in 2017, but it wasn’t for particularly celebratory reasons; longtime co-frontman Chester Bennington died that year, spurring an outpouring of streams and sales in remembrance of the late iconic singer. In 2023, the band found success via the 20th-anniversary reissue of its 2003 album Meteora, which spurred the year-end No. 1 on Mainstream Rock Airplay Songs and Alternative Airplay Songs in “Lost,” a previously unreleased cut featuring Bennington’s vocals.
A new greatest-hits package, Papercuts, followed this April, boasting a one-week No. 1 on Mainstream Rock Airplay in “Friendly Fire.” In September, Linkin Park officially reformed with a new vocalist in Dead Sara’s Emily Armstrong, with comeback single “The Emptiness Machine” topping both Mainstream Rock Airplay and Alternative Airplay for multiple weeks. Despite being released in the 11th hour of the 2024 chart year, the song appears on several year-end rankings, paced by its No. 4 arrival on Hot Hard Rock Songs.
What will 2025 have in store for Linkin Park? Stay tuned, with new album From Zero having been released on Nov. 15, whose chart performance will factor into the year-end 2025 charts.
Further up Top Rock & Alternative Artists, Billie Eilish rises to the highest point she’s ever been on the ranking since the weekly Hot Rock & Alternative Songs and Top Rock & Alternative Albums charts changed from their previous iterations to allow alternative-leaning music not necessarily within the rock genre in 2020. Eilish ends the year at No. 2, the highest rank for a woman since Lorde was No. 1 on the year-end tally in 2014. She’s also No. 1 on Top Alternative Artists, a return for Eilish after she also reigned in 2022.
As in 2022, Eilish released a new album, this time Hit Me Hard and Soft. The set has reigned on Top Rock & Alternative Albums for 18 weeks so far since debuting atop the June 1 list and has paced Top Alternative Albums for even longer (22 frames); though she misses out on the distinction of the No. 1 Top Alternative Albums year-end entry in 2024 (that goes to Noah Kahan’s Stick Season), Hit Me Hard and Soft still ranks at No. 2, while Eilish is the No. 1 Top Alternative Albums Artist in 2024 thanks to a flurry of appearances on the year-end ranking (When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? at No. 11, Happier Than Ever at No. 14 and Dont Smile at Me at No. 47).
Eilish also boasts a coronation as the No. 1 on Hot Alternative Songs Artists in 2024, accumulating 11 songs on the 50-position year-end Hot Alternative Songs list. That includes the Nos. 2 and 3: “Birds of a Feather,” from Hit Me Hard and Soft, and “What Was I Made For?,” off the 2023 Barbie film soundtrack.
Neither song could hold a candle to Hozier’s “Too Sweet,” No. 1 on the year-end Hot Alternative Songs. The viral success of the tune fuels Hozier’s appearance at No. 4 on Top Rock & Alternative Artists, an impressive comeback for the Irish singer-songwriter after having last reached the top 10 in 2015, when he was No. 2. “Too Sweet” was a force across all metrics; the song ends 2024 as the No. 1 on the year-end Adult Alternative Airplay Songs, Alternative Streaming Songs and Rock Digital Song Sales lists, while other notable accolades include No. 2 on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs, No. 4 on Alternative Airplay Songs and No. 4 on Rock & Alternative Airplay Songs.
Hozier’s influence even extended outside the rock and alternative genres, much like his breakout 2014 hit, “Take Me to Church.” “Too Sweet” ends the year at No. 10 on Hot 100 Songs, as well as at No. 4 on Adult Pop Airplay Songs and No. 7 on Pop Airplay Songs.
The year’s No. 1 on Top New Rock & Alternative Artists illuminates TikTok’s continued influence on all charts: Djo, whose “End of Beginning,” originally released in 2022, went viral via multiple trends on the social media app earlier this year. The project of actor Joe Keery also finds its way to No. 10 on Top Rock & Alternative Artists, while “End of Beginning” is the year-end No. 6 on Alternative Streaming Songs and No. 7 on Alternative Airplay Songs.
And Hozier’s not the only resurgent act to top a year-end radio ranking; Sum 41’s “Landmines” leads the Alternative Airplay Songs list, while Daughtry crowns the Mainstream Rock Airplay Artists ranking.
Sum 41 (which relents the Alternative Airplay Artists No. 1 to usual format stalwart Green Day) topped the weekly Alternative Airplay chart for two weeks but ultimately remained on the ranking for 51 weeks from October 2023 to October 2024. The Deryck Whibley-fronted band’s reign was its first since 2001’s “Fat Lip,” marking the longest break between rulers in the chart’s 36-year history.
Daughtry’s Mainstream Rock Airplay Artists coronation is thanks to a pair of one-week No. 1s on the weekly Mainstream Rock Airplay. This is former American Idol contestant Chris Daughtry’s first time topping the chart. “Pieces” ends up at No. 3 on Mainstream Rock Airplay Songs, followed by “Artificial” at No. 5; Nothing More’s “If It Doesn’t Hurt” is No. 1, the rockers’ first time as the biggest song of the year, eclipsing the No. 3 rank of “Ballast” all the way back in 2014.
Billboard’s year-end music recaps represent aggregated metrics for each artist, title, label and music contributor on the weekly charts dated Oct. 28, 2023, through Oct. 19, 2024. The 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 details, 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.
For the second straight year, Taylor Swift finishes atop the year-end Billboard Global 200 Artists and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. Artists charts. With 67 entries in the 2024 tracking period (Oct. 28, 2023, through Oct. 19, 2024-dated charts) on the former chart and 66 on the latter, she doubles the nearest totals for both.
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In just the third week of the chart year, songs from 1989 (Taylor’s Version) impacted the global lists, amassing 19 debuts on both tallies. About six months later, the release of The Tortured Poets Department spurred 31 more new entries, including “Fortnight,” featuring Post Malone, which arrived atop each weekly chart.
But Swift’s biggest global hit of 2024 was from neither album. “Cruel Summer,” from 2019’s Lover, hit No. 1 on the Global 200 in November 2023 and ends the year at No. 4 on both annual recaps. The song’s years-late success blossomed out of buzz from its opening-slot performance at Swift’s record-busting The Eras Tour, which launched in March 2023.
While it’s perhaps an anomaly for a four-year-old song to hit No. 1, it also speaks to Swift’s extremely wide-ranging success and reach over the last two years, amid several other album releases. In addition to the three albums already named, Swift’s 2024 global hit roster includes tracks from Folklore, Midnights, Red (Taylor’s Version), and more.
Billboard’s year-end music recaps represent aggregated metrics for each artist, title, label and music contributor on the weekly charts dated Oct. 28, 2023, through Oct. 19, 2024. The 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 details, 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 rest of the top five for both global charts’ artist rankings include the same line-up of artists, in slightly different order. Sabrina Carpenter and Billie Eilish are next up, with Carpenter at No. 2 for the Global 200 and Eilish in the runner-up spot for Global Excl. U.S. On both lists, Ariana Grande and The Weeknd follow at Nos. 4-5, respectively.
Carpenter, Eilish and Grande all scored No. 1 global hits in 2024 from new albums, led by the former’s “Espresso,” which topped the Global 200 for eight weeks. Eilish got there with “Birds of a Feather” and Grande logged two leaders with “Yes, And?” and “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait For Your Love).”
The Weeknd’s top five placement is largely fueled by older hits like “Blinding Lights” and “Starboy.” His more recent releases include “One of the Girls,” featuring Jennie and Lily Rose Depp, and “Popular,” with Playboi Carti and Madonna, both from his first major TV vehicle, 2023’s The Idol. He also debuted with “Dancing in the Flames” and “Timeless” in the final weeks of the chart year, both from his upcoming album Hurry Up Tomorrow.
The Weeknd is the only artist to appear in the top five – or top 10 – of both lists for all four year-end global recaps (the Global 200 and Global Excl. U.S. charts launched in late 2020).
Carpenter and Swift land “Espresso” and “Cruel Summer” in the top five of both tallies’ songs year-end charts, but a different newcomer leads both lists. Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things” is No. 1 on the year-end Global 200 chart and the year-end Global Excl. U.S. ranking.
“Beautiful Things” debuted on the Feb. 3-dated edition of each chart, rising 13-6-1 on the Global 200 and 37-14-2-1 on Global Excl. U.S. chart. Ultimately, it spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the former list and eight on the latter. It’s the longest-running chart-topper on both lists for the 2024 tracking period, tied only by “Espresso” on Global Excl. U.S.
Boone’s breakout hit remained in the top 10 on Global Excl. U.S. for the duration of the chart year, though it dipped out on two occasions on the Global 200 – once because of Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department clogging the top of the chart, and once knocked out by The Weeknd’s first new solo single in years.
Teddy Swims’ “Lose Control” is No. 2 on the Global 200 recap, and No. 5 for Global Excl. U.S. The remaining top five year-end global hit is Tate McRae’s “Greedy,” at Nos. 5 and 3 on the lists, respectively. Both songs spent the entire chart year on each global chart, but arrive at their high year-end finishes with different trajectories.
“Greedy” topped both lists, spending five weeks at No. 1 on Global Excl. U.S. While it lasted throughout 2024, it ended the tracking period at No. 91. “Lose Control” never climbed higher than No. 3 on Global Excl. U.S. and No. 4 on the Global 200 but held remarkably steady throughout the year. By the final frame of the 2024 chart year, it was still No. 12 on both lists, never having left the top 20 once it got there in January and February.
Notably, FloyyMenor and Cris Mj’s “Gata Only” is No. 6 on the year-end Global Excl. U.S. and No. 9 on the year-end Global 200. It’s only the second non-English-language song to crack the year-end top 10 in the charts’ four annual recaps. In 2021, Bad Bunny landed “Dakiti” at No. 6 for both rankings. They are not only the first Chilean acts to make the year-end top 10, but the first from all of South America.
Chappell Roan finishes 2024 at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top New Artists chart, in the same year the 26-year-old saw breakout successes on both the weekly Billboard 200 albums chart and weekly Billboard Hot 100 songs chart. The singer-songwriter’s debut full-length album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200 in August, while she logged seven entries on the Billboard Hot 100, including her first top 10 with the No. 4-peaking “Good Luck, Babe!”
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Recent champs in the year-end Top New Artists category include Zach Bryan (2023), Latto (2022), Olivia Rodrigo (2021), Roddy Ricch (2020) and Billie Eilish (2019).
Roan made her Billboard chart debut in October of 2023, when she premiered on the Emerging Artists chart dated Oct. 7. By the following April, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess made its Billboard 200 chart debut, at No. 127. It took a relatively leisurely route to the top 10, reaching the region in its 12th chart week (June 22-dated chart). It’s atypical for an album to climb into the top 10 for the first time, as most albums that peak in the top 10 do so by debuting in the top 10. Rise had the slowest climb to the top 10 for a non-catalog album in a year. Once the album reached the top 10, it was a near-weekly fixture in the region for the rest of the year.
Meanwhile, as the album was doing big business on the Billboard 200, Roan’s songs were starting to dent the Hot 100. First came “Good Luck, Babe!” (a stand-alone single not on Rise), which debuted on the Hot 100 dated April 20, eventually peaking at No. 4 in September. Following “Babe,” she logged six more entries during the eligibility period: “Red Wine Supernova,” “Hot to Go!,” “Pink Pony Club,” “Casual,” “Femininomenon” and “My Kink Is Karma.” Of those, “Hot to Go!” and “Pink Pony Club” both reached the weekly top 40.
The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess wraps 2024 at No. 18 on the year-end Billboard 200 Albums tally. On the year-end Hot 100 Songs recap, “Good Luck, Babe!” is No. 18 and “Hot to Go!” is No. 53.
On the year-end overall Top Artists ranking, Roan closes the year at No. 11, and on the Top Artists – Female roundup, she’s No. 5.
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 New Artists category ranks the best-performing acts, and new acts, of the year based on activity on the Billboard 200 and Billboard Hot 100, as well as Billboard Boxscore (touring), for the 2024 tracking period.
Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department and 1989 (Taylor’s Version) finish as the Nos. 1 and 2 titles on the 2024 year-end Billboard 200 Albums recap. It’s the only time that the year’s top two albums are by the same act since 1967, when The Monkees’ More of the Monkees and its self-titled set were Nos. 1 and 2. (The Billboard 200 began publishing on a regular, weekly basis in 1956.)
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Swift becomes the first act to have the year’s top album in four different years, following her year-end wins with reputation (2018), 1989 (2015) and Fearless (2009).
During the 2024 chart year (Oct. 28, 2023-Oct. 19, 2024-dated charts), The Tortured Poets Department racked up 15 nonconsecutive weeks atop the weekly Billboard 200 list. (It returned to No. 1 on the Dec. 14, 2024-dated chart for a 16th frame at the top.) When it claimed a 15th week at No. 1, it tied Carole King’s 1971 release Tapestry for the third-most weeks at No. 1 among albums by women. Only Adele’s 21 (24 weeks in 2011-12) and the Whitney Houston-led soundtrack to The Bodyguard (20 weeks in 1992-93) have earned more weeks at No. 1 among women.
1989 (Taylor’s Version), the fourth of Swift’s re-recorded studio albums, places at No. 2 on the year-end Billboard 200 albums chart. The set premiered at No. 1 on the weekly Billboard 200 chart dated Nov. 11, 2023, and spent a total of six nonconsecutive weeks in the lead on the list during the eligibility period. It remained in the weekly top 40 of the chart through the rest of the 2024 chart year, save for two weeks.
Swift goes even further in the top 10 on the the 2024 year-end Billboard 200 Albums recap, with Lover and Midnights at Nos. 9 and 10, marking the first time that an act has finished with four of the year’s top 10 albums. (Lover and Midnights were Nos. 9 and 2, respectively, on the 2023 year-end ranking.)
Half of 2024’s top 10 albums are holdovers from 2023’s year-end top 10, including one that’s been among the year-end top 10 for four years straight: Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album, which was released in 2021. It’s No. 8, after being No. 5 in 2023, No. 3 in 2022 and No. 1 in 2021. It’s the first title to spend four years, consecutively or otherwise, in the year-end Billboard 200 Albums top 10 since the original Broadway cast recording of My Fair Lady (1956-59). In recent years, albums tend to stay longer on the weekly chart, and appear on the year-end ranking repeatedly, thanks to sustained streaming activity.
Three songs from The Tortured Poets Department dot the year-end Hot 100 Songs ranking: “Fortnight,” featuring Post Malone (No. 22); “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” (No. 35); and “Down Bad” (No. 99). “Fortnight” debuted atop the weekly Billboard Hot 100 in May and spent two weeks in the lead. The same week it opened at No. 1, “Down Bad” and “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” debuted and peaked at Nos. 2 and 3, respectively.
As for the non-Swift albums in the year-end Billboard 200 albums roundup: No. 3 is Wallen’s One Thing at a Time (it was tops in 2023), Noah Kahan’s Stick Season is No. 4 (his first appearance in the year-end top 10), Drake’s For All the Dogs is No. 5, SZA’s SOS is No. 6 (it was No. 3 a year ago), Zach Bryan’s self-titled album is No. 7 and Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album is No. 8.
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 appears 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 different between these lists and the calendar-year recaps that are independently compiled by Luminate.