Michael Jackson Shatters His Best Streaming Week Total After Biopic Release, as Catalogue Floods Charts
The late icon more than doubles his previous best total, as Thriller and "Billie Jean" lead his albums and songs' returns.
Michael Jackson performs in concert circa 1988.
Confirming projections reported in late April, Michael Jackson obliterates his personal-best domestic streaming week following the release of the Michael biopic. The King of Pop’s solo song catalogue registered a collective 137.5 million official on-demand streams for the week of April 24-30 in the United States, according to Luminate, up 146% and more than doubling his previous career high.
Before his nine-digit streaming haul, Jackson’s solo catalogue achieved a new personal benchmark last week at 55.9 million song clicks. Prior to the Michael era, the late icon, who died in 2009, recorded a high of 53.7 million for the week of Oct. 25-31, 2019, spurred by the now-annual Halloween resurgence for “Thriller.”
Michael covers Jackson’s life from 1966 to 1988, including time with both The Jackson 5 and The Jacksons groups with his brothers. As such, those acts’ catalogues experience massive increases too, with the former’s songs pulling 10.1 million streams in the tracking week, up 135% from the previous week’s 4.3 million. The Jacksons, meanwhile, surge to 4.9 million clicks for their tracks, up 57% from 2.1 million last week.
The streaming eruption fuels Jackson to several appearances across the week’s Billboard charts. For starters, the legend races 29-3 on the Billboard Artist 100, a multimetric chart indicating artist popularity from streaming, digital song sales, radio airplay and album sales.
Elsewhere, his landmark album Thriller re-enters the Billboard 200 at No. 7, with 45,000 equivalent album units (a 425% weekly improvement). It’s the album’s best showing since reaching the same position in December 2022 after a 40th anniversary reissue. Excluding that celebration, Thriller last ranked higher on the chart dated June 2, 1984, at No. 6. Just weeks before, the blockbuster wrapped 37 weeks at No. 1 across 1983-1984, still the most weeks at No. 1 by an album by a singular artist in the chart’s history.
Thriller classic “Billie Jean” leads the song recap, as it repeats its usual standing as the catalogue’s most streamed song (9.4 million) and returns to the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 38. Dating to its 1983 debut, the iconic Hot 100 leader adds its 26th week on the list.
Beyond Thriller, Jackson lands two more albums in the top 40 of the Billboard 200: His 2004 set Number Ones pushes 20-12 via 37,000 equivalent album units, while the biopic’s official soundtrack, Michael: Songs From the Motion Picture, starts at No. 37. The latter gives Jackson his 18th top 40 project, and first since 2017’s Scream reached No. 33.
Jackson expands his scope in the R&B realm, with 10 titles on the 50-position Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. “Billie Jean” heads the pack, at No. 5, followed by “Beat It” (No. 9), “Human Nature” (No. 10), “Don’t Stop ‘til You Get Enough” (No. 11), “Rock With You” (No. 13), “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)” (No. 17), “The Way You Make Me Feel” (No. 20), “Smooth Criminal” (No. 22), “Remember the Time” (No. 23), “Dirty Diana” (No. 24) and “Man in the Mirror” (No. 25). Notably, both “Human Nature” and “P.Y.T.” earn new peaks on the ranking, surpassing their respective Nos. 27 and 46 prior maximums.
The activity around Jackson’s material echoes the record-setting opening for Michael, which generated a huge commercial response. The film, directed by Antoine Fuqua and starring Jackson’s nephew Jaafar Jackson in the title role, grossed $97 million in its first weekend in the U.S. and Canada and $218.8 million worldwide, both the highest ever opening figures for a biopic.
