Top Album Sales is a music chart published by Billboard magazine documenting the best-selling albums on a weekly basis in the United States. Up until December 2014, this had been documented by the Billboard 200 chart, but that chart was altered to factor in music streaming by accounting for album-equivalent units in its tallies to document the effect of the rise of music streaming outlet such as Apple Music and Spotify. The Top Album Sales chart was created to preserve the older methodology of counting pure album sales.
List of number-one albums
+KeyIndicates the best-selling album of each year
2014 +Issue date Album Artist(s) Pure sales Ref.December 131989 Taylor Swift281,000 December 20230,000 December 27 2014 Forest Hills Drive J. Cole353,000
2015
+Issue date Album Artist(s) Pure sales Ref.January 3 1989 Taylor Swift331,000 January 10326,000 January 17172,000 January 24111,000 January 31 Title Meghan Trainor 195,000 February 7 American Beauty/American Psycho Fall Out Boy 192,000 February 14 1989 Taylor Swift 71,000 February 21 Now That's What I Call Music! 53 Various artists 99,000 February 28 If You're Reading This It's Too Late Drake 495,000 March 7 Smoke + Mirrors Imagine Dragons 172,000 March 14 Dark Sky Paradise Big Sean 139,000 March 21 Piece by Piece Kelly Clarkson 83,000 March 28 Rebel Heart Madonna 116,000 April 4 To Pimp a Butterfly Kendrick Lamar 324,000 April 11 107,000 April 18 The Album About Nothing Wale 88,000 April 25 Future Hearts All Time Low 75,000 May 2 Handwritten Shawn Mendes 106,000 May 9 Sound & Color Alabama Shakes 91,000 May 16 Jekyll + Hyde Zac Brown Band 214,000 May 23 Wilder Mind Mumford and Sons 231,000 May 30 Pitch Perfect 2 Soundtrack 92,000 June 6 Blurryface Twenty One Pilots 134,000 June 13 At.Long.Last.ASAP ASAP Rocky 117,000 June 20 How Big How Blue How Beautiful Florence + The Machine 128,000 June 27 Drones Muse 79,000 July 4 Before This World James Taylor 96,000 July 11 Dark Before Dawn Breaking Benjamin 135,000 July 18 Dreams Worth More Than Money Meek Mill 215,000 July 25 251,000 August 1 Black Rose Tyrese August 8 DS2 Future 126,000 August 15 Woman Jill Scott 58,000 August 22 Descendants Soundtrack 30,000 August 29 Kill the Lights Luke Bryan 320,000 September 5 September 12 Immortalized Disturbed 93,000 September 19 Beauty Behind the Madness The Weeknd 326,000 September 26 Got Your Six Five Finger Death Punch 114,000 October 3 That's the Spirit Bring Me the Horizon 55,000 October 10 What a Time to Be Alive Drake and Future 334,000 October 17 Cass County Don Henley 87,000 October 24 Unbreakable Janet Jackson 109,000 October 31 Revival Selena Gomez 86,000 November 7 Pentatonix Pentatonix 88,000 November 14 Sounds Good Feels Good 5 Seconds of Summer 179,000 November 21 Traveller Chris Stapleton 153,000 November 28 97,000 December 5 Purpose Justin Bieber 522,000 December 1225 Adele 3,380,000 December 19 1,110,000 December 26 695,000
2016
+Issue date Album Artist(s) Pure sales Ref.January 2 25 Adele 790,000 January 9 1,110,000 January 16 307,000 January 23 164,000 January 30 Blackstar David Bowie 174,000 February 6 Death of a Bachelor Panic! At the Disco 169,000 February 1325 Adele 97,000 February 20 Anti Rihanna 124,000 February 27 25 Adele 124,000 March 5 102,000 March 12 81,000 March 19 I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It The 1975 98,000 March 26 Untitled Unmastered. Kendrick Lamar 142,000 April 2 Hymns That Are Important to Us Joey + Rory 44,000 April 9 This Is What the Truth Feels Like Gwen Stefani 76,000 April 16 Mind of Mine Zayn 112,000 April 23 Traveller Chris Stapleton 59,000 April 30 Cleopatra The Lumineers 108,000 May 7 The Very Best of Prince Prince 100,000 May 14 Lemonade Beyoncé 485,000 May 21 Views Drake 852,000 May 28 175,000 June 4 Lemonade Beyoncé 92,000 June 11 If I'm Honest Blake Shelton 153,000 June 18 Black Dierks Bentley 88,000 June 25 Stranger to Stranger Paul Simon 67,000 July 2 Last Year Was Complicated Nick Jonas 47,000 July 9 The Getaway Red Hot Chili Peppers 108,000 July 16 True Sadness The Avett Brothers 43,000 July 23 California Blink 182 172,000 July 30 Blank Face LP Schoolboy Q 52,000 August 6 Hard Love Needtobreathe 46,000 August 13 Everybody Looking Gucci Mane 43,000 August 20 Major Key DJ Khaled 59,000 August 27 Suicide Squad: The Album Soundtrack 128,000 September 3 50,000 September 10 Blonde Frank Ocean 232,000 September 17 Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway Barbra Streisand 148,000 September 24 Bad Vibrations A Day to Remember 62,000 October 1 They Don't Know Jason Aldean 131,000 October 8 Sinner Aaron Lewis 39,000 October 15 Illuminate Shawn Mendes 121,000 October 22 22, A Million Bon Iver 58,000 October 29 Revolution Radio Green Day 90,000 November 5 Walls Kings of Leon 68,000 November 12 Joanne Lady Gaga 170,000 November 19 Cosmic Hallelujah Kenny Chesney 79,000 November 26 This House Is Not for Sale Bon Jovi 128,000 December 3 We Got It from Here... Thank You 4 Your Service A Tribe Called Quest 112,000 December 10 Hardwired... to Self-Destruct Metallica 282,000 December 17 Starboy The Weeknd 209,000 December 24 The Hamilton Mixtape Various artists 169,000 December 31 4 Your Eyez Only J. Cole 363,000
2017
+Issue date Album Artist(s) Pure sales Ref.January 7 A Pentatonix Christmas Pentatonix 185,000 January 14 82,000 January 21 Moana Soundtrack 44,000 January 28 La La Land 30,000 February 4 I See You The xx 36,000 February 11 The Search for Everything: Wave One John Mayer 38,000 February 18 The Devil Don't Sleep Brantley Gilbert 66,000 February 25 I Decided. Big Sean 65,000 March 4 Fifty Shades Darker Soundtrack 72,000 March 11 Future Future 60,000 March 18 HNDRXX 48,000 March 25 ÷ (Divide) Ed Sheeran 322,000 April 1 Hardwired... to Self-Destruct Metallica 100,000 April 8 More Life Drake 226,000 April 15 Hardwired... to Self-Destruct Metallica 48,000 April 22 Emperor of Sand Mastodon 41,000 April 29 Memories...Do Not Open The Chainsmokers 166,000 May 6 Damn Kendrick Lamar 353,000 May 13 89,000 May 20 Humanz Gorillaz 115,000 May 27 From a Room: Volume 1 Chris Stapleton 202,000 June 3 Harry Styles Harry Styles 193,000 June 10 One More Light Linkin Park 100,000 June 17 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band The Beatles 71,000 June 24 Hopeless Fountain Kingdom Halsey 76,000 July 1 Witness Katy Perry 162,000 July 8 Melodrama Lorde 82,000 July 15 Evolve Imagine Dragons 109,000 July 22 Hydrograd Stone Sour 30,000 July 29 4:44 Jay-Z 174,000 August 5 61,000 August 12 Lust for Life Lana Del Rey 80,000 August 19 Everything Now Arcade Fire 94,000 August 26Brett Eldredge Brett Eldredge 36,000 September 2 Rainbow Kesha 90,000 September 9 Science Fiction Brand New 55,000 September 16 Villain Queens of the Stone Age 69,000 September 23 American Dream LCD Soundsystem 81,000 September 30 Life Changes Thomas Rhett 94,000 October 7 Concrete and Gold Foo Fighters 120,000 October 14 Wonderful Wonderful The Killers 111,000 October 21 Now Shania Twain 134,000 October 28 Perception NF 38,000 November 4 Beautiful Trauma Pink 384,000 November 11Flicker Niall Horan 128,000 November 18 Live in No Shoes Nation Kenny Chesney 217,000 November 25 The Thrill of It All Sam Smith 185,000 December 2 Reputation Taylor Swift 1,216,000 December 9 232,000 December 16 131,000 December 23 Songs of Experience U2 180,000 December 30 What Makes You Country Luke Bryan 99,000
2018
+Issue date Album Artist(s) Pure sales Ref.January 3 Revival Eminem 197,000 January 6 Reputation Taylor Swift 79,000 January 13 The Greatest Showman Soundtrack 78,000 January 20 70,000 January 27 70,000 February 3 Mania Fall Out Boy 117,000 February 10The Greatest Showman Soundtrack February 17 Man of the Woods Justin Timberlake 242,000 February 24 March 3 By the Way, I Forgive You Brandi Carlile 41,000 March 10 This House Is Not for Sale Bon Jovi 120,000 March 17The Greatest Showman Soundtrack March 24 American Utopia David Byrne 63,000 March 31 Hardwired...To Self-Destruct Metallica 63,000 April 7 Boarding House Reach Jack White 121,000 April 14 My Dear Melancholy The Weeknd 68,000 April 21 Invasion of Privacy Cardi B 103,000 April 28 Rearview Town Jason Aldean 162,000 May 5 KOD J. Cole 174,000 May 12 Beerbongs & Bentleys Post Malone 153,000 May 19 Good Thing Leon Bridges 59,000 May 26 Beautiful Trauma Pink 135,000 June 2 Love Yourself: Tear BTS 100,000 June 9 Shawn Mendes Shawn Mendes 142,000 June 16 Ye Kanye West 85,000 June 23 Come Tomorrow Dave Matthews Band 285,000 June 30 Youngblood 5 Seconds of Summer 117,000 July 7 Pray for the Wicked Panic! at the Disco 151,000 July 14 Scorpion Drake 160,000 July 21 29,000 July 28 29,000 August 4Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again: The Movie Soundtrack Soundtrack 34,000 August 11 Songs for the Saints Kenny Chesney 65,000 August 18 Astroworld Travis Scott 270,000August 25 78,000 September 1 Sweetener Ariana Grande 127,000 September 8 Love Yourself: Answer BTS 141,000 September 15 Kamikaze Eminem 225,000 September 22 Egypt Station Paul McCartney 147,000 September 29 Cry Pretty Carrie Underwood 251,000 October 6 Bridge Josh Groban 94,000 October 13 Dancing Queen Cher 150,000 October 20 A Star Is Born Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper 162,000 October 27 86,000 November 3 Anthem of the Peaceful Army Greta Van Fleet 80,000 November 10 Si Andrea Bocelli 123,000 November 17 A Star Is Born Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper November 24 Experiment Kane Brown 105,000 December 1 Delta Mumford and Sons 214,000 December 8 Love Michael Buble 105,000 December 15 A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships The 1975 48,000 December 22 Skins XXXTentacion 52,000 December 29 A Star Is Born Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper
2019
+Issue date Album Artist(s) Pure sales Ref.January 5 A Star Is Born Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper January 12 The Greatest Showman Soundtrack January 19 A Star Is Born Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper January 26 February 2 Heard It in a Past Life Maggie Rogers 37,000 February 9 DNA Backstreet Boys 227,000 February 16 A Star Is Born Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper February 23 Thank U, Next Ariana Grande 116,000 March 2 Bohemian Rhapsody: The Original Soundtrack Queen March 9 A Star Is Born Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper 77,000 March 16 Wasteland, Baby! Hozier 75,000 March 23 Death Race for Love Juice Wrld 43,000 March 30 A Star Is Born Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper April 6 ? XXXTentacion April 13 When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? Billie Eilish 170,000 April 20 Free Spirit Khalid 85,000 April 27 Map of the Soul: Persona BTS 196,000 May 4 May 11 People Hillsong United 101,000 May 18 Father of the Bride Vampire Weekend 119,000 May 25 Space Between Sammy Hagar & The Circle 40,000 June 1 Igor Tyler the Creator 74,000 June 8 We Are Superhuman NCT 127 25,000 June 15 Center Point Road Thomas Rhett 45,000 June 22 Happiness Begins Jonas Brothers 357,000 June 29 Madame X Madonna 90,000 July 6 Help Us Stranger The Raconteurs 84,000 July 13 Let's Rock The Black Keys 41,000 July 20 Revenge of the Dreamers III Dreamville and J. Cole 24,000 July 27 No. 6 Collaborations Project Ed Sheeran 70,000 August 3 16,000 August 10 The Search NF 84,000 August 17 Country Squire Tyler Childers 24,000 August 24 We Are Not Your Kind Slipknot 102,000 August 31 Hello From Las Vegas Lionel Richie 65,000 September 7Lover Taylor Swift 679,000 September 14 Fear Inoculum Tool 248,000 September 21 Hollywood's Bleeding Post Malone 200,000 September 28 III The Lumineers 73,000 October 5 The Owl Zac Brown Band 99,000 October 12 Abbey Road The Beatles 70,000 October 19 SuperM SuperM 164,000 October 26 November 2 Walk the Sky Alter Bridge November 9 Jesus is King Kanye West 109,000 November 16 Wildcard Miranda Lambert 44,000 November 23 What You See Is What You Get Luke Combs 109,000 November 30 Courage Celine Dion 109,000 December 7 9 Jason Aldean 68,000 December 14 Frozen 2 Soundtrack 37,000 December 21 Who The Who 88,000 December 28 Fine Line Harry Styles 393,000
References