SZA’s ‘SOS’ Captures 13th Week at No. 1 on Billboard 200 Albums Chart

SZA’s SOS scores a 13th nonconsecutive week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated May 3), as the set rises 3-1 with 52,000 equivalent album units earned in the United States in the week ending April 24 (down 1%), according to Luminate. The album continues to profit from its expansive deluxe reissue on Dec. 20, 2024 (dubbed SOS Deluxe: LANA), with 15 additional tracks, in addition to a Feb. 9 reissue with four more bonus cuts.

SOS was originally released on Dec. 9, 2022, as a 23-track album and spent 10 weeks at No. 1 in late 2022 and early 2023. It then returned to No. 1 for two more weeks, following the LANA expansion — on the Jan. 4 and 11, 2025-dated charts, and now on the latest tally. All versions of the album, old and new, are combined for tracking and charting under the title SOS.

With SOS earning 52,000 units in the latest tracking week, that marks the smallest weekly sum for a No. 1 album in over three years, since the April 23, 2022-dated chart, when Lil Durk’s 7220 returned to No. 1, for a second week at the top, with just a little more than 47,000 units.

For the first time in a little over two months, no albums debut in the top 10 on the Billboard 200. We last had a top 10 absent of a debut on the Feb. 22-dated list, when the highest arrival was outside the top 40 (Dream Theater’s Parasomnia at No. 41).

While there are no debuts in the top 10 on the latest chart, there is a title reaching the region for the first time, as Doechii’s Alligator Bites Never Heal flies 24-10 following its wider availability on vinyl, as well as its first release on CD.

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 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new May 3, 2025-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on April 29. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.

Of SOS’ 52,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending April 24, SEA units comprise 49,500 (down 1%, equaling 68.29 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs; it rises 2-1 on the Top Streaming Albums chart, for a third nonconsecutive week on top of the year-and-a-half old ranking), traditional album sales comprise 2,500 (down 5%) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum (up 2%).

With a 13th total week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, SOS has the most weeks atop the chart for an R&B/hip-hop album by a woman, or an R&B album by a woman, since Whitney Houston’s self-titled set tallied 14 weeks at No. 1 in 1986. (Honorable mention to the Houston-led soundtrack to The Bodyguard, which logged 20 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 in 1992-93. The 12-track album has six songs by Houston and six songs by other artists.)

The last R&B/hip-hop album with at least 13 weeks atop the Billboard 200 was Drake’s Views, which notched 13 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 in 2016 (May 21-Oct. 8). The last R&B album with at least 13 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 was The Bodyguard, with its 20-week reign. (R&B/hip-hop and R&B albums are defined as those that have hit or are eligible for Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and Top R&B Albums charts, respectively.)

SZA launched her co-headlining Grand National Tour on April 19 in Minneapolis at U.S. Bank Stadium with Kendrick Lamar, who sees his chart-topping GNX hold steady at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with nearly 51,000 equivalent album units earned (down 7%).

The titles at Nos. 3-9 are all former No. 1s. Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time climbs 6-3 (48,000 equivalent album units earned, up 4%); Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet is steady at No. 4 (47,000; down 9%); PARTYNEXTDOOR and Drake’s $ome $exy $ongs 4 U is a non-mover at No. 5 (46,000; down 11%); Bad Bunny’s Debí Tirar Más Fotos falls 6-8 (39,000; down 7%); Playboi Carti’s MUSIC is stationary at No. 7 (38,000; down 15%); Lady Gaga’s MAYHEM is up 10-8 (37,000; down 6%); and Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album jumps 14-9 (34,500; up 6%).

Doechii earns her first top 10-charting effort on the Billboard 200 albums chart as the 2025 Billboard Woman of the Year’s Grammy Award-winning Alligator Bites Never Heal flies 24-10 following a wider availability on vinyl and its first release on CD. The set earned 33,000 equivalent album units in the tracking week (up 43%). Of that figure, SEA units comprise 18,500 (down 3%, equaling 25.9 million on-demand official streams of the songs on the streaming edition of the set, it moves 28-27 on Top Streaming Albums), album sales comprise 14,000 (up 325% — the best sales week for both the album and the artist; it reenters at No. 1 on Top Album Sales, the set’s first week atop the list) and TEA units comprise 500 (down 12%).

Alligator Bites Never Heal was released in 2024 as a 19-song album. It was reissued in March with one bonus track — the gone-viral breakout hit “Anxiety” — on “extended” digital download and streaming editions. All physical versions contain the original 19-song tracklist. Until April 18, the set was only available to purchase as a download and in two vinyl variants. On April 19, it garnered a wider availability on vinyl, including two new vinyl editions (both color variants) exclusively available via Target and Urban Oufitters, along with a widely available CD.

“Anxiety” reached the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart dated March 29 (rising 13-10), marking Doechii’s first top 10. The album yielded an earlier top 40-charting hit with “Denial Is a River” (hitting No. 21 in February).

Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.