The Billboard Digital Song Sales chart is a chart that ranks the most downloaded songs in the United States. Its data is compiled by Nielsen SoundScan based on each song's weekly digital sales, which combines sales of different versions of a song by an act for a summarized figure.
In 2021, 28 acts reached number one (including features) with 22 songs. Fifteen artists achieved their first number-one digital song: Tom MacDonald, Gabby Barrett, Masked Wolf, Dua Lipa, DaBaby, Bryson Gray, Tyson James, Chandler Crump, Jack Harlow, State of Mine, Drew Jacobs, John Rich, Mike Rowe, Juice Wrld and Suga. The year was dominated by South Korean boy band BTS: they are the only act to have multiple number-one songs (5), one of only two acts to top the chart for multiple weeks, holding the top 10 digital song sales weeks of the year, and topping the chart for a total of 30 weeks. The band's "Dynamite" opened the year atop the chart, spending eight non-consecutive weeks in the lead (following its ten chart-topping weeks in 2020), making it the longest running number-one song in the chart's history, before being replaced by their own "Film Out". "Butter" later topped the chart for 18 non-consecutive weeks, tying the band's own "Dynamite", and accumulating at least 1,699,900 digital downloads.
Justin Bieber's "Anyone" became his 13th number-one song, breaking his tie with Drake for the most number-one songs by a male artist. It was replaced by singer-songwriter Olivia Rodrigo's debut single "Drivers License" which spent three weeks atop the chart, the only song not by BTS to top the chart for multiple weeks. Taylor Swift's "All Too Well (Taylor's Version)", a re-recorded version of her 2012 single "All Too Well", debuted atop the chart, extending her record as the artist with the most number-one songs on the chart, with 23. Following the release of a remix of The Weeknd's "Save Your Tears" with Ariana Grande, the song jumped to the number-one spot, becoming their sixth and eighth number-ones on the chart respectively.
Chart history +KeyIndicates best-performing song of 2021 Issue dateSongArtist(s)Weekly salesRef(s) January 2 "Dynamite" 16,000 January 9 45,000 January 16 "Anyone" 22,000 January 23 "Drivers License" 38,000 January 30 27,000 February 6 17,000 February 13 "Fake Woke" 14,000 February 20 "Up" 34,000 February 27 "Love Story (Taylor's Version)" 25,000 March 6 "Dynamite" 14,500 March 13 24,000 March 20 27,900 March 27 26,700 April 3 43,000 April 10 37,700 April 17 "Film Out" 19,000 April 24 "Montero (Call Me by Your Name)" 19,500 May 1 "The Good Ones" May 8 "Save Your Tears" and 18,000 May 15 "Astronaut in the Ocean" 12,500 May 22 "Levitating" featuring 19,900 May 29 "Seeing Green" featuring and 33,000 June 5 "Butter" 242,800 June 12 140,200 June 19 138,400 June 26 111,400 July 3 128,400 July 10 July 17 108,800 July 24 "Permission to Dance" 140,100 July 31 "Butter" 115,600 August 7 112,900 August 14 79,200 August 21 62,900 August 28 55,000 September 4 68,800 September 11 143,000 September 18 84,500 September 25 48,000 October 2 33,500 October 9 "My Universe" and 127,000 October 16 42,600 October 23 "Industry Baby" featuring 34,300 October 30 "Easy on Me" 74,000 November 6 "Let's Go Brandon" featuring and 48,000 November 13 November 20 "Easy on Me" 14,600 November 27 "All Too Well (Taylor's Version)" Taylor Swift 57,800 December 4 "God's Country" and December 11 "Santa's Gotta Dirty Job" and 13,000 December 18 "Butter" 26,500 December 25 "Girl of My Dreams" and 40,000
See also 2021 in American music List of Billboard Hot 100 number ones of 2021 List of number-one Billboard Streaming Songs of 2021
References
External links Current Digital Song Sales chart