Michael Jackson's Thriller Returns to No. 1 on Billboard's R&B and Hip-Hop Albums Chart

Michael Jackson's Thriller is back at No. 1 on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, climbing three places to the top of the list dated Nov. 14, Billboard reported on Nov. 10.

The album earned 55,000 equivalent album units in the tracking week of Oct. 29 to Nov. 5, according to Luminate, the company that collects chart data. That is an 89% rise from 29,000 units the week before. Equivalent album units are a way of turning streams and song sales into the album sales they would add up to. Of the 55,000, 32,000 came from streaming, which equals 34.2 million official on-demand streams of the album's songs. Traditional album sales, meaning physical and digital copies bought whole, added 22,000 units. Track-equivalent album units, where ten individual song sales count as one album, provided the remaining 1,000.

Billboard says the jump is largely driven by the title track, which gained after the Halloween holiday. Songs tied to the season often rise in the weeks around October 31, as listeners queue up familiar favourites for parties and costumes.

The album is released on the Epic and Legacy labels. Epic is part of Sony Music, and Legacy handles catalogue releases from older recordings.

The return is a record-book story as well. Thriller spent two weeks at No. 1 on this chart back in May, and this is its 40th week at the top, according to Billboard. For Jackson, the chart win is his 101st career week at No. 1, the second-highest total of any act since the chart launched in 1965. The Temptations hold the top spot with 109 weeks.

Thriller also held the record for most weeks at No. 1 on this chart from 1984 until 2025, when SZA's SOS passed it. SOS now leads the chart with 46 weeks at No. 1, and it last topped the list in January.

The album is also moving on the main Billboard 200, the country's all-genre albums ranking. Thriller rose from No. 13 to No. 2 there, its highest position since 1984. Across its run, the album has now spent 37 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, the most weeks at the top for any album by a single artist, Billboard reports.

For a 1982 record, those are the kind of numbers that show up when a song finds a new audience every autumn. The chart counts the plays, the downloads and the copies, and this week the Halloween season lifted all three.

Billboard's chart is dated the week after it is published, so the next tracking week will decide whether Thriller holds on or slips as the holiday fades.