TheTop Album Sales is amusic chart released weekly byBillboard magazine listing each week's top-sellingalbums in the United States. The chart has been published since December 13, 2014, although the magazine also retrospectively recognizes theBillboard 200 charts fromMay 25, 1991, throughDecember 6, 2014, as part of the history of the Top Album Sales listing.[1]Sales figures for the chart are tabulated byBillboard with electronically monitored piece count information from Nielsen SoundScan, nowLuminate.
The first number-one album actually published under the Top Album Sales banner was1989 byTaylor Swift. However, sinceBillboard also recognizes the history of theBillboard 200 chart since 1991 as part of this chart, the magazine recognizes the first chart-topper asTime, Love & Tenderness byMichael Bolton.[2]
As of theBillboard issue dated February 21, 2026, the current best-selling record in the United States isGolden Hour: Part.4, the thirteenth EP byAteez. This is the South Korean boy band's sixth record to appear at the top of this chart, the last being their 2025 albumGolden Hour: Part.3.[3]
On May 25, 1991,Billboard began tabulating top-selling albums in the United States with electronically monitored piece count information fromNielsen Soundscan, now known as Luminate.[1] Up until December 2014, the weekly top-selling albums had been documented by theBillboard 200 chart, but that chart was altered to factor inmusic streaming by accounting foralbum-equivalent units in its tallies to document the effect of the rise ofmusic streaming services such asApple Music andSpotify. During the week of December 6, 2014, the chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units.[1] The Top Album Sales chart was created to preserve the older methodology of countingpure album sales.[4][5][6][7]
The Top Album Sales and theBillboard 200 listed different number-one albums for the first time on February 8, 2015, whenNow That's What I Call Music! 53 reached number one on the Top Album Sales (98,000 copies sold), whileTaylor Swift's1989 took the top spot on theBillboard 200 (77,000 copies sold).[8] As streaming became a major metric in music, the disparity between the Top Album Sales and theBillboard 200 grew larger. On October 8, 2016,Drake'sViews became the first number-one album on theBillboard 200 to miss the Top 10 of the Top Album Sales, charting at number 22.[9] Meanwhile,We Are Superhuman byNCT 127 became the first album to reach number one on the Top Album Sales but fail to crack the Top 10 of theBillboard 200, peaking at number 11 on June 8, 2019.[10] As streaming continued to dominate,Hoodie SZN byA Boogie wit da Hoodie became the firstBillboard 200 number one to miss the Top Album Sales entirely, not selling enough copies to rank within the Top 100 on January 19, 2019.[11] On October 28, 2023, theTop Streaming Albums chart was launched byBillboard and the Top Album Sales chart was reduced from 100 positions to 50.[12][13]
In December 2023, Taylor Swift became the first act to simultaneously occupy the top 4 positions of the chart.[14] The following month, January 2024, Swift also became the first act to simultaneously occupy seven of the top-ten positions.[15][16] Swift's 2025 albumThe Life of a Showgirl holds the record for most single-week sales on the Top Album Sales chart, selling 3,479,500 copies through the week of October 18, 2025.[17]
Chart achievements listed below cover the Top Album Sales since its launch in December 2014, as well as theBillboard 200 data between May 1991 and December 2014, whichBillboard retrospectively recognizes as part of the Top Album Sales statistics.
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| Number of albums | Artist | Ref. |
|---|---|---|
| 48 | Grateful Dead | [32] |
| 22 | George Strait | [33] |
| 21 | Prince | [34] |
| Garth Brooks | [22] | |
| 20 | Mariah Carey | [35] |
| 19 | Taylor Swift | [18] |
| Tim McGraw | [36] | |
| 18 | Pearl Jam | [37] |
| Bruce Springsteen | [25] | |
| 17 | Kenny Chesney | [20] |