Drake Has 12 Albums on the Billboard 200 Chart for the First Time

Not only does Drake capture his 15th No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated May 30) with ICEMAN, and claim a historic hold of the entire top three on the chart, but he also has 12 albums in total on the 200-position chart for the first time.

Thus, Drake is the first living soloist to have 12 concurrently charting albums on the Billboard 200 since the list was combined from its previously separate mono and stereo album charts into one all-encompassing list in August of 1963.

In that span (August 1963 – present), the only acts to have placed at least 12 albums on the chart at the same time were Prince (in two weeks following his death in 2016) and The Beatles (in two separate weeks in 2010 and 2014).

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 2,500 ad-supported or 1,000 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new May 30, 2026-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on May 27 (a day later than usual due to the Memorial Day holiday in the U.S. on May 25). For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.

On the Billboard 200 dated May 30, Drake charts the following titles:

No. 1 – ICEMANNo. 2 – HABIBTINo. 3 – MAID OF HONOURNo. 25 – Take CareNo. 40 – ViewsNo. 55 – $ome $exy $ongs 4 U (with PARTYNEXTDOOR)No. 65 – ScorpionNo. 69 – Certified Lover BoyNo. 81 – Thank Me LaterNo. 96 – For All the DogsNo. 130 – More LifeNo. 167 – Nothing Was the Same

Here are the acts who have placed at least 12 albums on the Billboard 200 simultaneously since August 1963:

• Drake – May 30, 2026 (12)• Prince – May 28, 2016 (13)• Prince – May 14, 2016 (a record 19)• The Beatles – March 1, 2014 (13)• The Beatles – Dec. 4, 2010 (14)

Prince’s achievements came shortly after he died, following a rush of interest in his catalog from music fans. The Beatles surged onto the list with 13 titles in 2014 largely to gains owed to promotion around the CBS-TV concert special The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute to The Beatles, which celebrated 50 years of The Beatles’ success in the U.S. timed to the 50th anniversary of the band’s first live American TV performance on The Ed Sullivan Show (Feb. 9, 1964). Both Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, the living members of The Beatles, performed on the TV special, in solo sets and together. In December 2010, The Beatles were heavy on the chart after its catalog finally arrived in the iTunes Store for download purchase.

While the Billboard 200 has ranked the country’s most popular albums each week for decades, dating back to March of 1956 when the list began regularly publishing on a weekly basis, the chart’s rules have changed dramatically over the years – making it easier for some albums to linger on the list in recent years than in decades past. For example, catalog albums (generally those 18 months or older) were mostly barred from charting from mid-1991 through the end of 2009. Then, at the end of 2014, the chart transitioned from a pure-album sales formula to a multimetric methodology – and adding streaming activity. Because of the changes in the chart’s methodology (primarily the inclusion of streaming data) and the ability for catalog albums to chart, many albums now continue to rank on the list for a much longer time than albums in previous decades, when the chart was effectively a sales-only ranking for current and/or new releases.

This article was first published by Billboard U.S.