Pearl Jam Earns Consecutive Mainstream Rock Airplay No. 1s for the First Time

Pearl Jam lands two straight No. 1s on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart for the first time, as “Wreckage” rises to the top of the July 13-dated tally.

The song follows the four-week reign of the group’s “Dark Matter” starting in March.

The Eddie Vedder-led band now boasts five career Mainstream Rock Airplay rulers. It first reigned with “Daughter” in 1993 and also led with “Better Man” in 2005 and “Given To Fly” in 1998 prior to its two 2024 No. 1s. As such, it’s also the first time the band has had more than one No. 1 on Mainstream Rock Airplay from the same album.

As previously reported, the act’s 26-year break between No. 1s set the record for the longest in the list’s 43-year history.

Concurrently, “Wreckage” lifts into the top five (6-5) of Alternative Airplay, where it’s the first song by the band to reach that mark since “Sirens” peaked at No. 4 in 2013. It’s also at its No. 3 high on Adult Alternative Airplay for a third straight week.

On the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart, “Wreckage” spends a third week in a row at its No. 2 best, as it racked up 6.1 million audience impressions in the week ending July 4, up 2%, according to Luminate. “Dark Matter” led for three weeks.

“Wreckage” debuted at No. 1 on the multimetric Hot Hard Rock Songs list dated May 4. It placed at No. 6 on the July 6-dated tally; in addition to its radio airplay, it drew 320,000 official U.S. streams in the week ending June 27.

“Wreckage” is the second single from Dark Matter, Pearl Jam’s 12th studio album. The set launched at No. 1 on the Top Rock & Alternative Albums ranking dated May 4 and has earned 102,000 equivalent album units to date.

All Billboard charts dated July 13 will update on Billboard.com on Tuesday, July 9.

Kevin Rutherford

Billboard