Top Country Albums
Top Country Albums is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States. The 50-position chart lists the most popular country music albums in the country, calculated weekly by Broadcast Data Systems based on physical sales along with digital sales and streaming. The chart was first published in the issue of Billboard dated January 11, 1964, under the title Hot Country Albums, when the number one album was Ring of Fire: The Best of Johnny Cash by Johnny Cash.[1]
The chart changed its name to Top Country LP's in the issue of Billboard dated January 13, 1968, Top Country LPs (with no apostrophe) in the issue dated May 31, 1980, and Top Country Albums in the issue dated October 20, 1984. The record for the highest number of weeks spent at number one by an album is held by Dangerous: The Double Album by Morgan Wallen, which spent a total of 97 non-consecutive weeks atop the chart.
Methodology[edit]
From its launch until May 1991, the chart was compiled based on sales reports submitted by a representative sample of record stores nationwide. In 1991 the sales reports were replaced by electronic point of sale data.[1] Since February 2017 the chart has been "based on multi-metric consumption (blending traditional album sales, track equivalent albums, and streaming equivalent albums)".[2]