Billboard 200

The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists. Often, a recording act will be remembered by its "number ones", those of their albums that outsold all others during at least one week.
The chart is based solely on sales (both at retail and digitally) in the United States. The sales tracking week begins on Monday and ends on Sunday. A new chart is published the following Thursday with an issue date of the following Saturday.

Example: Monday 1 January — sales tracking week begins Sunday 7 January — sales tracking week ends Thursday 11 January — new chart published, with issue date of Saturday 20 January.
Normally new product is released to the American market on Tuesdays. Digital downloads are included in Billboard 200 tabulation, as long as the entire album is purchased as a whole. Albums that are not licensed for retail sale in the United States (yet purchased in the U.S. as imports) are not eligible to chart.

Location: http://www.billboard.com/

Most charted albums

1. Elvis Presley (114)
2. Frank Sinatra (83)
3. Johnny Mathis (73)
4. Willie Nelson (57)
5. Barbra Streisand (54)

Most top-ten albums

1. The Rolling Stones (36)
2. Frank Sinatra (32)
3. The Beatles (31)
4. Barbra Streisand (29)
5. Elvis Presley (27)

Most number-one albums

1. The Beatles (20)
2. Elvis Presley (10) (tie)
3. Jay-Z (10) (tie)
4. The Rolling Stones (9)
5. Barbra Streisand (8) (tie)
6. Garth Brooks (8) (tie)
7. Bruce Springsteen (8) (tie)

Most cumulative weeks at number one

1. The Beatles (132)
2. Elvis Presley (67)
3. Garth Brooks (51)
4. Michael Jackson (50)
5. The Kingston Trio (46)

Most weeks at number-one

1. (54 weeks) West Side Story — Soundtrack (1962)
2. (37 weeks) Thriller — Michael Jackson (1983)
3. (31 weeks) Calypso — Harry Belafonte (1956)
4. (31 weeks) South Pacific — Soundtrack (1958)
5. (31 weeks) Rumours — Fleetwood Mac (1977)
6. (24 weeks) Saturday Night Fever — Soundtrack (1978)
7. (24 weeks) Purple Rain — Prince and the Revolution (1984)
8. (21 weeks) Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em — MC Hammer (1990)
9. (20 weeks) The Bodyguard — Soundtrack (1992)
10. (19 weeks) Blue Hawaii — Elvis Presley (1961)

Most weeks on the chart

1. (741 weeks) The Dark Side of the Moon — Pink Floyd
2. (490 weeks) Johnny's Greatest Hits — Johnny Mathis
3. (480 weeks) My Fair Lady — Original Cast
4. (331 weeks) Highlights from the Phantom of the Opera — Original Cast
5. (302 weeks) Tapestry — Carole King
6. (295 weeks) Heavenly — Johnny Mathis
7. (283 weeks) Oklahoma! — Soundtrack
8. (282 weeks) MCMXC a.D. — Enigma
9. (281 weeks) Metallica — Metallica
10. (277 weeks) The King and I — Soundtrack
11. (277 weeks) Hymns — Tennessee Ernie Ford

• Michael Jackson's "Thriller" have sold at least 100 million copies(Exact 104)
• Backstreet Boys have sold 28 million copies
• The Beatles album 1 have sold 25 million copies
• Britney Spears …Baby One More Time have sold 25 million copies