Adele’s ‘30’ Spends Fourth Week at No. 1 on Billboard 200 Albums Chart

Plus: Juice WRLD’s second posthumous album debuts at No. 2.

Adele’s 30 holds firm at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart for a fourth consecutive, and total, week. It’s the first album with four weeks in a row at No. 1 since March. 30 earned 183,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Dec. 16 (down 6%) according to MRC Data.

The last album with four straight weeks at No. 1 was Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album, which spent all 10 of its weeks at No. 1 from its debut frame, between the charts dated Jan. 23 and March 27. The last album by a woman with four weeks in a row at No. 1 was Taylor Swift’s Folklore, which spent its first six weeks atop the list (of its total of eight nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1) beginning in August 2020.

30 is the fourth album released in 2021 to spend at least four weeks at No. 1 in total. Previously, Drake’s Certified Lover Boy (five weeks), Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour (five) and Wallen’s Dangerous (10) all clocked at least four weeks in the lead.

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. 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 Dec. 25, 2021-dated chart (where 30 spends a fourth week at No. 1) will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Dec. 21. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.

Of 30’s 183,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Dec. 16, album sales comprise 146,500 (down 2%), SEA units comprise 35,000 (down 19%; equaling 47.3 million on-demand streams of the set’s track) and TEA units comprise less than 1,500 units (down 15%).

30 logs the biggest fourth week for any album in over three years, since Drake’s No. 1 Scorpion earned 184,000 in its fourth frame (chart dated Aug. 4, 2018).

Juice WRLD’s second posthumous album, Fighting Demons, debuts at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with 119,000 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum, SEA units comprise 110,000 units (equaling 155.49 million on-demand streams of the set’s songs), TEA units comprise 5,000 and album sales comprise 4,000. Fighting Demons is Juice WRLD’s fifth chart entry, and all five have reached the top five. He previously hit No. 1 with both his first posthumous release, Legends Never Die (which debuted at No. 1 on the July 25, 2020-dated chart and spent two weeks at No. 1), and with Death Race for Love (debuted at No. 1 on the March 23, 2019, chart, and spent two weeks at No. 1).

Four former No. 1s are next up on the Billboard 200. Swift’s second re-recorded album, Red (Taylor’s Version), dips 2-3 in its fifth week on the list, and fifth frame in the top 10 (68,000). It has now spent more weeks in the top 10 than Swift’s first re-recorded project, Fearless (Taylor’s Version), which has notched four nonconsecutive weeks in the top 10 (between April and October).

Michael Bublé’s Christmas is steady at No. 4 with 64,000 equivalent album units earned (up 7%), Rodrigo’s Sour is stationary at No. 5 with 60,000 units (though up 18%, thanks to a surge in vinyl LP sales) and Wallen’s Dangerous holds at No. 6 with 45,000 (down 6%).

Mariah Carey’s Merry Christmas rises 8-7 with nearly 45,000 equivalent album units earned (up 11%). Vince Guaraldi Trio’s soundtrack to the animated TV special A Charlie Brown Christmas hits a new peak, climbing 9-8 with 44,500 units (up 15%); it beats its previous chart high, set just a week ago, when it reached No. 9.

Drake’s former No. 1 Certified Lover Boy falls 7-9 with 44,000 units (down 5%) and Polo G’s chart-topping Hall of Fame falls 3-10 with 43,000 (down 45%), following its run back up the chart a week ago following a deluxe reissue.

Source: billboard.com