Albums With the Most Weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 Chart in the Last 25 Years — From Drake’s ‘Views’ to Adele’s ’21’
Drake's "Views" is already a massively successful album on the Billboard 200 chart, having notched a 12th week atop the list. But the album is also part of an exclusive club of just nine titles that…
Drake’s Views is already a massively successful album on the Billboard 200 chart, having notched a 12th week atop the list. But the album is also part of an exclusive club of just nine titles that have spent a dozen or more weeks at No. 1 in the last 25 years.
Drake’s ‘Views’ Spends 12th Week at No. 1 on Billboard 200 Chart
Dating back to August of 1991, the longest run at No. 1 for an album is owned by Adele’s 21, with a whopping 24 weeks atop the list. That No. 1 rule was spread out across 2011 and 2012, in a nonconsecutive run from March 12, 2011 (when it debuted at No. 1) through June 23, 2012.
Albums With the Most Weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 Chart in the Last 25 Years (1991-2016):
Artist, Title – Weeks at No. 1 (Peak Years)
Adele, 21 – 24 (2011-2012)
Whitney Houston/Soundtrack, The Bodyguard – 20 (1992-1993)
Garth Brooks, Ropin’ the Wind – 18 (1991-1992)
Billy Ray Cyrus, Some Gave All – 17 (1992)
Soundtrack, Titanic – 16 (1998)
Soundtrack, Frozen – 13 (2014)
Drake, Views – 12 (2016)
?Alanis Morissette, Jagged Little Pill – 12 (1995-1996)
Santana, Supernatural – 12 (1999-2000)
Following 21 is the Whitney Houston-led soundtrack to The Bodyguard, which spent 20 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 between Dec. 12, 1992 and May 29, 1993. The set also launched five top 40-charting singles on the Billboard Hot 100 (four for Houston, one for The S.O.U.L. System) and was in the top 40 of the Billboard 200 from its debut week (Dec. 5, 1992) through May 7, 1994.
Country icon Garth Brooks is next up on the list of the albums with the most weeks at No. 1 in the last 25 years, as his Ropin’ the Wind set snared 18 weeks atop the chart in 1991 and 1992. It’s one of nine No. 1 albums for Brooks, who most recently led the list with 2013’s Blame It All On My Roots: Five Decades of Influences.
Another country artist, Billy Ray Cyrus, is up next, as his Some Gave All debut claimed 17 weeks at No. 1 — all consecutive — in 1992. Cyrus followed up his blockbuster first album with 1993’s It Won’t Be the Last, which peaked at No. 3. It is, so far, his last album to reach the top 10.
The soundtrack to Titanic sailed at No. 1 for 16 straight weeks in 1998. It was No. 1 for so long, it blocked three superstars from scoring No. 1s with their then-latest releases. Madonna’s Ray of Light debuted and peaked at No. 2 behind Titanic, as did Pearl Jam’s Yield and George Strait’s One Step At a Time.
Back in 2014, the Frozen soundtrack logged 13 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1. The album is one of only four soundtracks from an animated film to hit No. 1, following Curious George (2006), Pocahontas (1995) and The Lion King (1994).
Currently — as of the Aug. 13, 2016-dated Billboard 200 chart — Drake’s Views is tied with Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill and Santana’s Supernatural, with 12 weeks at No. 1 each.
Essential Facts About the Billboard 200 Albums Chart
Billboard began regularly publishing weekly pop album charts on a consistent basis in 1956, eventually splitting the chart into separate lists for stereo albums and mono albums. In 1963, those individual lists were combined.
In the history of the Billboard 200 chart, the album with the most weeks at No. 1 is the soundtrack to West Side Story, with a staggering 54 weeks atop the list. That sum combines the set’s time atop Billboard’s once-separate stereo and mono album charts before the Billboard 200 became a singular ranking the week of Aug. 17, 1963
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