The Billboard 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by Billboard magazine to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists. Sometimes, a recording act is remembered for its "number ones" that outperformed all other albums during at least one week. The chart grew from a weekly top 10 list in 1956 to become a top 200 list in May 1967, acquiring its existing name in March 1992. Its previous names include the Billboard Top LPs (1961–1972), Billboard Top LPs & Tape (1972–1984), Billboard Top 200 Albums (1984–1985), Billboard Top Pop Albums (1985–1991), and Billboard 200 Top Albums''' (1991–1992).
The chart is based mostly on sales—both at retail and digital–of albums in the United States. The weekly sales period was Monday to Sunday when Nielsen Soundscan started tracking sales in 1991. Still, since July 2015, the tracking week begins on Friday (to coincide with the Global Release Day of the music industry) and ends on Thursday. A new chart is published the following Tuesday, post dated to the Saturday of that week, four days later. The chart's streaming schedule is also tracked from Friday to Thursday. Digital downloads of albums are included in Billboard 200 tabulation. Albums that are not licensed for retail sale in the United States (yet purchased in the U.S. as imports) are not eligible to chart. A long-standing policy rendering titles that are sold exclusively by specific retail outlets (such as Walmart and Starbucks) ineligible for charting was reversed on November 7, 2007, and took effect in the issue dated November 17, 2007.
On December 13, 2014, Billboard began to include on-demand streaming and digital track sales (as measured by Nielsen SoundScan) using a new algorithm with data from all major on-demand audio subscription and online music sales services in the U.S. Starting on the issue dated January 18, 2020, Billboard updated its method again by incorporating video data from YouTube, along with visual plays from digital platforms like Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, Vevo and, as of the issue dated March 23, 2021, from Facebook. YouTube removed their streaming data from Billboards methodology in late 2025. YouTube's reasoning was a denied request to count ad-attached streams and YouTube Premium streams as equal for chart purposes.
As of the issue dated October 10, 2026, the number-one album on the chart is The Life of a Showgirl by Taylor Swift.
HistoryBillboard began an album chart in 1945. Initially, only five positions long, the album chart was not published on a weekly basis, with weeks sometimes passing before it was updated. A biweekly (though with a few gaps), 15-position Best-Selling Popular Albums chart appeared in 1955. With the increase in album sales as the early 1950s format wars stabilized into market dominance by 45 rpm singles and long-playing 12-inch albums – and with 78 rpm record and long-playing 10-inch album sales decreasing dramatically – Billboard premiered a weekly Best-Selling Popular Albums chart on March 24, 1956. The position count varied anywhere from 10 to 30 albums. The first number one album on the new weekly list was Belafonte by Harry Belafonte. The chart was renamed Best-Selling Pop Albums later in 1956, and then Best-Selling Pop LPs in 1957.
Beginning on May 25, 1959, Billboard split the ranking into two charts: Best-Selling Stereophonic LPs for stereo albums (30 positions) and Best-Selling Monophonic LPs for mono albums (50 positions). These were renamed Stereo Action Charts (30 positions) and Mono Action Charts (40 positions), respectively, in 1960. In January 1961, they became Action Albums – Stereophonic (15 positions) and Action Albums – Monophonic (25 positions), and three months later, they became Top LPs – Stereo (50 positions) and Top LPs – Monaural (150 positions).
On August 17, 1963, the stereo and mono charts were combined into a 150-position chart called Top LPs. On April 1, 1967, the chart was expanded to 175 positions, and then finally to 200 positions on May 13, 1967. In February 1972, the album chart's title was changed to Top LPs & Tape; in 1984, it was retitled Top 200 Albums; in 1985, it was retitled again to Top Pop Albums; in 1991, it became the Billboard 200 Top Albums; and it was given its current title of the Billboard 200 on March 14, 1992.
Catalog albums In 1960, Billboard began concurrently publishing album charts that ranked sales of older or mid-priced titles. These Essential Inventory charts were divided by stereo and mono albums, and featured titles that had already appeared on the main stereo and mono album charts. Mono albums were moved to the Essential Inventory – Mono chart (25 positions) after spending 40 weeks on the Mono Action Chart, and stereo albums were moved to the Essential Inventory – Stereo chart (20 positions) after 20 weeks on the Stereo Action Chart.
In January 1961, the Action Charts became Action Albums – Stereophonic (15 positions) and Action Albums – Monophonic (24 positions). Albums appeared on either chart for up to nine weeks, and were then moved to an Essential Inventory list of approximately 200 titles, with no numerical ranking. This list continued to be published until the consolidated Top LPs chart debuted in 1963.
In 1982, Billboard began publishing a Midline Albums chart (alternatively titled Midline LPs), which ranked older or mid-priced titles. The chart held 50 positions and was published on a biweekly (and later triweekly) basis.
On May 25, 1991, Billboard premiered the Top Pop Catalog Albums chart, the criteria for which were albums that were more than 18 months old and had fallen below number 100 on the Billboard 200.
"Both Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall should be in the Billboard Top 200," said former Pink Floyd member Roger Waters in 1992. "The Wall still does anything up to four million each year... They've created a catalog chart in which to place all these old albums, leaving the main chart free for all the artists the record companies will want to book advertising space for. It just offers further evidence of the dishonesty that's rife in this business."
Following Michael Jackson's death on June 25, 2009, several of his albums saw a significant surge in sales. Number Ones, The Essential Michael Jackson, and Thriller occupied the top three spots for two consecutive weeks – a first in history. In the third week, six of Jackson's albums were the best-selling albums in the country. The success of catalog albums led to a change in Billboards chart policies, and starting with the issue dated December 5, 2009, the catalog limitations for the Billboard 200 were lifted, allowing all albums to chart regardless of age or single activity (essentially changing Top Comprehensive Albums into the Billboard 200). A new chart that keeps the previous criteria for the Billboard 200 – dubbed the Top Current Albums chart – was also introduced in the same issue.
Christmas holiday albumsBillboard has adjusted its policies for Christmas and other adjacent holiday albums several times. The albums were eligible for the main album charts until 1963, when a Christmas Albums chart was created. Albums appearing here were not listed on the Top LPs chart, and in 1974, this rule was reversed, and holiday albums again appeared within the main list.
In 1983, the Christmas Hits chart with a top 10 albums list was resurrected, but a title's appearance here did not disqualify it from appearing on the Top Pop Albums chart. After no holiday charts were published in 1986, the Christmas Hits section resumed in 1987 as an albums-only chart with 30 positions that appeared every other week 2-3 times every Christmas season. In 1990, this chart was retitled Top Christmas Albums and in 2000, the title was changed to Top Holiday Albums; , it holds 50 positions and runs for several weeks during the end-of-calendar-year holiday season. Its current policy allows holiday albums to concurrently chart on the Top Holiday Albums list and the Billboard 200.
Bubbling Under the Top LPs From the end of 1970 to 1985, Billboard published a Bubbling Under the Top LPs weekly chart. A corollary to the Bubbling Under the Hot 100 singles chart, this chart listed albums that had not yet charted on the main Billboard 200 chart, then called Top LPs & Tape.
For thirteen months in 1956 and 1957, a five-position Pop Albums Coming Up Strong chart had appeared in Billboard. The immediate precursor, however, was an Action Albums list that appeared with the Bubbling Under the Hot 100 singles chart. The Bubbling Under the Top LPs first appeared, unannounced, in the 26 December 1970 issue of the magazine, as a successor to an Action Albums list. Like Action Albums, this list was unnumbered and fluctuated in size from around seven to ten entries. In the following month, the list increased to over 20 entries, and in the 13 March 1971 issue, a numbered chart (201 through 225) appeared. The chart continued to range from four to 35 entries, until settling at ten entries from 6 July 1974 on. Beginning with the issue of 20 October 1984, the chart was renamed Bubbling Under the Top 200 Albums to matching a title change of the main album chart. It was renamed again—Bubbling Under the Top Pop Albums—beginning in the 9 February 1985 issue once again reflecting a change of the main album chart's name. For the life of the chart, it was paired with Bubbling Under the Hot 100.
The chart ceased to exist after its final appearance in the 24 August 1985 issue, the same date that saw a discontinuation of the Bubbling Under Hot 100. While the Bubbling Under Hot 100 was revived in 1992, Billboard has never published another Bubbling Under albums chart.
Nielsen SoundScan Since May 25, 1991, the Billboard 200's positions have been derived from Nielsen SoundScan sales data; , it is contributed to by approximately 14,000 music sellers. Because these numbers are supplied by a subset of sellers rather than record labels, it is common for these numbers to be substantially lower than those reported by the Recording Industry Association of America when Gold, Platinum and Diamond album awards are announced. (RIAA awards reflect wholesale shipments, not retail sales.)
The first album to debut atop the Billboard 200 chart in the Nielsen SoundScan era was Skid Row's Slave to the Grind, released on June 11, 1991.
Incorporation of streaming data and track sales
Beginning with the December 13, 2014, issue, Billboard updated the methodology of its album chart again, changing from a "pure sales-based ranking" to one measuring "multi-metric consumption". With this overhaul, the Billboard 200 includes on-demand streaming and digital track sales (as measured by Nielsen SoundScan) by way of a new algorithm, utilizing data from all of the major on-demand audio subscription services, including Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play Music and Groove Music. Under the new methodology, 10 track sales or 1,500 song streams from an album are treated as equivalent to one purchase of the album. Billboard continues to publish a pure album sales chart, called Top Album Sales, that maintains the traditional Billboard 200 methodology but is based exclusively on SoundScan's sales data.
Beginning on January 18, 2020, Billboard incorporated video and audio data from YouTube, along with visual plays from streaming services like Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, and Vevo, into the Billboard 200. The change has also impacted Billboard genre-specific album charts. The incorporation of YouTube data was paused in early 2026 per YouTube's request due to a disagreement on how Billboard measures and weighs ad-supported and on-demand streams on the platform.