SZA’s ‘SOS’ Scores 12th Week Atop Billboard 200 Albums Chart
SZA’s SOS secures a 12th nonconsecutive week atop the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated Jan. 11), continuing to profit from its deluxe reissue on Dec. 20 with 15 additional tracks. The set surged 15-1 on the Jan. 4 chart, following the reissue (dubbed SOS Deluxe: LANA). The set was originally released on Dec. 9, 2022, as a 23-track album and spent 10 weeks at No. 1 in late 2022 and early 2023. All versions of the album, old and new, are combined for tracking and charting.
SOS earned 130,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Jan. 2 (down 27%), according to Luminate.
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The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. 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. The new Jan. 11, 2025-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Tuesday (Jan. 7). For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter and Instagram.
Of SOS’ 130,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Jan. 2, SEA units comprise 125,500 (down 25%, equaling 166.31 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs; it holds at No. 1 on the Top Streaming Albums chart), traditional album sales comprise 4,000 (down 59%, falling 23-36 on Top Album Sales) and TEA units comprise 500 (down 63%).
With a 12th total week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, SOS has the most weeks atop the chart for an R&B/hip-hop album by a woman, or an R&B album by a woman, since Whitney Houston’s self-titled set tallied 14 weeks at No. 1 in 1986. (Honorable mention to the Houston-led soundtrack to The Bodyguard, which logged 20 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 in 1992-93. The 12-track album has six songs by Houston and six songs by other artists.)
The last R&B/hip-hop album with at least 12 weeks atop the Billboard 200 was Drake’s Views, which notched 13 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 in 2016 (May 21-Oct. 8). The last R&B album with at least 12 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 was The Bodyguard, with its 20-week reign. (R&B/hip-hop and R&B albums are defined as those that have hit or are eligible for Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and Top R&B Albums charts, respectively.)
As we move farther away from Christmas (Dec. 25), and with the chart’s latest tracking week covering the Dec. 27, 2024-Jan. 2, 2025 frame, no holiday albums dot the entire top 100 of the 200-title deep chart. A week ago, six of the top 10, and 32 of the top 100, were holiday efforts. In turn, on the latest chart, nonseasonal sets race up the list — many with week-over-week declines in activity — as the chart shakes off the festive last bits of merriment.
Kendrick Lamar’s former No. 1 GNX climbs 5-2 (70,000 equivalent album units earned; down 9%), Sabrina Carpenter’s chart-topping Short n’ Sweet jumps 12-3 (56,000; down 7%), the Wicked film soundtrack flies 8-4 (49,000; down 31%) and Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft vaults 14-5 (46,000; down 16%).
Taylor Swift’s former leader The Tortured Poets Department moves 7-6 (44,000 equivalent album units; down 40%) and Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess rises 16-7 (41,000; down 20%).
To close out the top 10 at Nos. 8-10, three titles that were outside the top 20 a week ago all rush back to the top 10. Morgan Wallen’s chart-topping One Thing at a Time jumps 29-8 (nearly 41,000; up 10%), Gracie Abrams’ The Secret of Us bounces 25-9 (40,000; up 2%) and Tyler, The Creator’s former No. 1 CHROMAKOPIA drives 27-10 (38,000; down less than 1%).
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.
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