— Year-End Charts —
The Best-Selling Albums and Songs of 2015
“Uptown Funk” spent fourteen weeks at No. 1 and won the year before most of its competition had released anything.
Artists of the Year
Top ArtistTaylor SwiftCombined albums + singles performance
Top Albums ArtistTaylor Swift
Top Singles ArtistThe Weeknd
Top 10 Albums of 2015 Billboard 200
- 11989Taylor Swift
- 2XEd Sheeran
- 3In the Lonely HourSam Smith
- 4If You’re Reading This It’s Too LateDrake
- 5TitleMeghan Trainor
- 6VMaroon 5
- 7The PinkprintNicki Minaj
- 82014 Forest Hills DriveJ. Cole
- 9Fifty Shades of GreySoundtrack
- 10FourOne Direction
Top 10 Songs of 2015 Hot 100
- 1Uptown FunkMark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars
- 2Thinking Out LoudEd Sheeran
- 3See You AgainWiz Khalifa ft. Charlie Puth
- 4Trap QueenFetty Wap
- 5SugarMaroon 5
- 6Shut Up and DanceWalk the Moon
- 7Blank SpaceTaylor Swift
- 8Watch MeSilentó
- 9Earned ItThe Weeknd
- 10The HillsThe Weeknd
What the 2015 Charts Show
- The year split: Taylor Swift led on albums while The Weeknd led on singles.
- 1989 placed in the year-end top 10 for a second straight year, having also charted in 2014.
How the 2015 charts were compiled
Every position here is a chart placement — measured sales, radio airplay and streaming across Billboard’s tracking year — not an editorial ranking. Albums come from the year-end Billboard 200, songs from the year-end Hot 100.
Billboard’s tracking year runs from roughly late October to mid-October rather than January to December, which is why a late-autumn release can win the following year and why a song can appear on two consecutive year-end lists.
Liner Notes
The stories behind the music, every week.
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