Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ Returns to No. 1 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums for the First Time Since 1984

Michael Jackson is back at the top of Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, and the move comes with a bit of historical weight attached. Thriller rises to No. 1 on the May 16-dated list, marking the album’s first week atop the chart since 1984 and its 38th overall frame in the lead. The lift arrives amid renewed interest in Jackson’s catalog following the streaming surge tied to the Michael biopic.

Released in November 1982, Thriller remains the <world’s best-selling album> according to Guinness and the <highest-certified studio album> in U.S. history according to the RIAA. This latest return to No. 1 was driven by 62,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. during the tracking week of May 1-7, according to Luminate. That total was up 36% from the previous week’s 45,000 units. Streaming accounted for 48,000 of those units, powered by 50.3 million official on-demand audio and video streams. Another 13,000 units came from traditional album sales, with track-equivalent albums adding the final 1,000.

It is not just the return to the summit that matters here. In its original chart run, Thriller was nearly immovable, spending 37 weeks at No. 1 in 1983 and 1984. That was a record for the ranking, which launched in 1965, until SZA’s SOS, helped by its SOS Deluxe: LANA edition, overtook it in June 2025. Jackson’s total now extends his record among albums by a male artist, with only SOS ahead of it overall at 46 weeks.

Jackson also has a second title sitting directly behind Thriller. His 2003 compilation Number Ones jumps from No. 5 to No. 2 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, also with 62,000 equivalent album units. Together, the two sets give Jackson the top two slots on the chart at the same time, a feat not seen since Future and Metro Boomin’s We Don’t Trust You and We Still Don’t Trust You occupied Nos. 1 and 2 for three straight weeks in April and May 2024. If rap acts are taken out of the equation, Jackson becomes the first artist to pull off the top-two sweep since The Temptations on the Feb. 22, 1969 chart, when TCB, a collaborative album with The Supremes, and Live at the Copa held those positions.

A chart record spread across six decades

As chart watcher Simone Del Niro notes, Jackson is now the first artist to reach No. 1 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums in each of the last six calendar decades. That kind of span is unusual even for an artist with as much catalog muscle as Jackson, and it traces a career that has remained unusually active in the charts long after his death in 2009. The full decade-by-decade rundown reads like a condensed history of his commercial dominance:

1970s: Off the Wall (No. 1 for nine weeks in 1979)

1980s: Off the Wall (seven weeks, 1980); Thriller (37 weeks, 1983-84); Bad (18 weeks, 1987-88)

1990s: Dangerous (12 weeks, 1992); HIStory: Past, Present and Future Book 1 (two weeks, 1995)

2000s: Invincible (four weeks, 2001); Michael Jackson’s This Is It Soundtrack (four weeks, 2009)

2010s: Michael (two weeks, 2011); Xscape (three weeks, 2014)

2020s: Thriller (one week, 2026)

The streaming bump is just as visible on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, where Jackson places 13 songs inside the top 25. “Billie Jean,” his most-streamed track most weeks, moves from No. 5 to No. 3. “Human Nature” climbs 10-6, “Beat It” rises 9-7 and “Don’t Stop ‘til You Get Enough” advances 11-9, further crowding the upper reaches of the chart.

There are also a few notable re-entries. “Bad” returns at No. 19, “You Rock My World” lands at No. 22 and “Chicago,” the posthumous track from 2014’s Xscape, reappears at No. 23. The latter is the oddest of the bunch, especially since it has no connection to the film tracking Jackson’s life from 1965 to 1988. Still, it seems to benefit from its prominent spot on Jackson’s Spotify artist page, where it often sits in the top 10, along with an internet clip of animated birds dancing to the song.

Here is Jackson’s full showing on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs this week:

No. 3, “Billie Jean”
No. 6, “Human Nature”
No. 7, “Beat It”
No. 9, “Don’t Stop ‘til You Get Enough”
No. 12, “Rock With You”
No. 13, “Dirty Diana”
No. 15, “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)”
No. 16, “Smooth Criminal”
No. 17, “The Way You Make Me Feel”
No. 19, “Bad”
No. 21, “Remember the Time”
No. 22, “You Rock My World”
No. 23, “Chicago”

Michael Jackson performs in concert circa 1983.
Kevin Mazur/WireImage