This year, artists like Taylor Swift, SZA, and Morgan Wallen have been frequent occupiers of the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 albums chart, but there’s always someone waiting to claim the honor for themselves. In September, Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts debuted at No. 1, and Zach Bryan’s self-titled album dethroned Travis Scott’s Utopia. And for the last two weeks (and counting), Rod Wave has owned the top spot.
It has long been a built-in game for artists to gun for the Billboard 200 throne, and it’s just as much a weekly spectator sport for fans. The publication’s FAQ section explains, “Almost all weekly charts update each Tuesday morning (while, during weeks with Monday holidays, charts update on Wednesdays). If you don’t see a weekly chart updated by those times, please clear your browser cache and try again.”
Billboard also laid out its methodology for determining the country’s best album per week. “The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the US based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album.”
