Digital Songs
The Digital Songs or Digital Song Sales chart ranks the best-selling digital songs in the United States, as compiled by Nielsen SoundScan and published by Billboard magazine. Although it originally started tracking song sales the week of October 30, 2004, it officially debuted in the issue dated January 22, 2005, and merged all versions of a song sold from digital music distributors. Its data was incorporated in the Hot 100 three weeks later. Since October 2004, digital sales have been incorporated into many of Billboards music singles charts. The decision was based on the dramatic increase of the digital market while commercial single sales in a physical format were becoming negligible.
The first number one song on the Digital Songs chart was "Just Lose It" by Eminem.
The chart's current number one as of the issue dated August 1, 2020 is "Popstar" by DJ Khaled featuring Drake.
Song records
Songs with most weeks at number one
- 17 weeks
- 16 weeks
- 13 weeks
- 11 weeks
- 10 weeks
Top 10 single-week download sellers
Biggest first-week sales
Biggest jump to number one
- 66-1: will.i.am featuring Britney Spears – "Scream & Shout"
- 57-1: Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens and Drew Seeley – "Breaking Free"
- 50-1: Taio Cruz featuring Ludacris – "Break Your Heart"
- 50-1: Lee Greenwood – "God Bless the U.S.A."
- 42-1: Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth – "See You Again"
- 38-1: Shakira featuring Wyclef Jean – "Hips Don't Lie"
- 35-1: Kelly Clarkson – "Piece by Piece"
- 34-1: J Balvin and Willy William featuring Beyoncé – "Mi Gente"
- 33-1: Billie Eilish – "No Time to Die"
- 28-1: Katy Perry – "Last Friday Night "
Longest climb to number one
- 26 weeks
- 25 weeks
- 24 weeks
- 23 weeks
- 20 weeks
Song achievements
- "I Gotta Feeling" by The Black Eyed Peas holds the record for biggest selling digitally downloaded song of all time, with current U.S. digital sales of over 8,000,000 copies sold. The song was also the first to pass the 6, 7 and 8 million of downloads
- "Low" by Flo Rida featuring T-Pain was the first song to pass the 4 and 5 million of downloads. It was also named the Top Digital Song of the 2000s decade.
- Soulja Boy's "Crank That " was the first song to pass the 3 million of downloads.
- Daniel Powter's "Bad Day" was the first song to pass the 2 million of downloads.
- "Hollaback Girl" by Gwen Stefani was the first song in history to surpass one million downloads.
- "Right Round" by Flo Rida holds the record for the largest debut/overall sales week for a male for a digital song with 636,000 downloads.
- "Payphone" by Maroon 5 featuring Wiz Khalifa holds the record for the largest debut/overall sales week for a group for a digital song with 493,000 downloads.
- "We Are Young" by Fun. featuring Janelle Monáe is the first song to log seven weeks of 300,000 or more in digital sales.
- "Thrift Shop" by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis featuring Wanz is the first song to log eight and also nine weeks of 300,000 or more in digital sales.
- "Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke featuring T.I. and Pharrell is the first song to log ten weeks of 300,000 or more in digital sales and the first song to log four weeks of 400,000 or more in digital sales.
- "Somebody That I Used to Know" by Gotye featuring Kimbra is the first song to log three weeks of 400,000 or more in digital sales.
- "Hello" by Adele surpassed the 4 million mark in its thirteenth week, faster than any other song in digital history.
- "Hello" by Adele holds the record for the largest debut/overall sales week for a digital song with 1,112,000 downloads and the largest non-debut sales week for a digital song with 635,000 downloads. It is also the first song to debut with 1 million downloads sold in a week and to log two weeks of 600,000 in digital sales.
- "Lean on Me" by Bill Withers is the oldest song to reach number one on the Digital Songs chart. The song was released on April 21, 1972 and reached the top, following Withers' death, on the chart dated April 18, 2020.
Album records
- Teenage Dream by Katy Perry holds the record for most digital number-ones from one album, with five. "California Gurls," "Teenage Dream," "Firework," "E.T." and "Last Friday Night " have all topped the chart.
- 1989 and Reputation by Taylor Swift each have four number ones on the chart. "Shake It Off", "Blank Space", "Out of the Woods" and "Bad Blood" reached number one from 1989 while "Look What You Made Me Do", "...Ready for It?", "Gorgeous" and "Call It What You Want" topped the chart from Reputation.
Artist records
Artists with the most number-one hits
Artists with most weeks at number one
Self-replacement at number one
- Mariah Carey – "All I Want for Christmas Is You" → "Don't Forget About Us"
- T.I. – "Whatever You Like" → "Live Your Life" '
- Beyoncé – "If I Were a Boy" → "Single Ladies "
- The Black Eyed Peas – "Boom Boom Pow" → "I Gotta Feeling"
- Glee Cast – "Teenage Dream" → "Forget You"
- Iggy Azalea – "Problem" ' → "Fancy" '
- Taylor Swift – "Shake It Off" → "Out of the Woods"
- Jordan Smith – "Somebody to Love" → "Mary, Did You Know?"
- Drake – "Pop Style" ' → "One Dance" '
- Justin Bieber – "Despacito" ' → "I'm the One"
- Taylor Swift – "Look What You Made Me Do" → "...Ready for It?"
- Drake – "God's Plan" → "Nice for What"
Simultaneously occupying the top two positions
- Mariah Carey: December 31, 2005
- "Don't Forget About Us"
- "All I Want for Christmas Is You"
- Beyoncé: December 6, 2008
- "Single Ladies "
- "If I Were a Boy"
- "I Gotta Feeling"
- "Boom Boom Pow"
- Kesha: January 23, 2010
- "Tik Tok"
- "Blah Blah Blah" '
- Taylor Swift: September 22, 2012
- "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together"
- "Ronan"
- Iggy Azalea: May 17, 2014 through June 21, 2014
- "Problem" '
- "Fancy" ' '
- Taylor Swift: November 1, 2014
- "Out of the Woods"
- "Shake It Off"
- Prince: May 14, 2016
- "Purple Rain"
- "When Doves Cry"
- "Shape of You"
- "Castle on the Hill"
- Justin Bieber: May 20, 2017 through May 27, 2017 and June 17, 2017 through July 1, 2017
- "I'm the One" '
- "Despacito" '
- Taylor Swift: September 23, 2017
- "...Ready for It?"
- "Look What You Made Me Do"
- Ed Sheeran: January 3, 2018
- "Perfect" '
- "River" '
- Cardi B: June 30, 2018 through July 14, 2018
- "Girls Like You" '
- "I Like It" '
- Lady Gaga: October 20, 2018
- "Shallow" '
- "I'll Never Love Again"
- Lady Gaga: October 27, 2018 through November 3, 2018
- "Shallow" '
- "Always Remember Us This Way"
- The Weeknd: December 14, 2019
- "Heartless"
- "Blinding Lights"
- BTS: March 7, 2020
- "On"
- "My Time"
- Kenny Rogers: April 4, 2020
- "The Gambler"
- "Islands in the Stream" '
- Bill Withers''': April 18, 2020
- "Lean on Me"
- "Ain't No Sunshine"
Artist achievements
- Katy Perry is the first artist in digital history to top 300,000 downloads in weekly sales with eight different songs. She has done it with "Hot n Cold", "California Gurls", "Firework", "E.T.", "The One That Got Away", "Part of Me", "Roar", and "Dark Horse".
- Rihanna was named the Digital Songs Artist of the 2000s decade.
- David Cook holds the record for most debuts and total songs charting in one week with 14.
- Miley Cyrus is the youngest female artist to debut at number one with 226,000 downloads with her song "Party in the U.S.A.". "Party" is also tied with Psy's "Gangnam Style" for the record of most weeks at #1 without topping the Billboard Hot 100, with six weeks each.
- Taylor Swift is the only artist to top 500,000 downloads in weekly sales with four different songs. She has done it with "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", "I Knew You Were Trouble", "Shake It Off", and "Blank Space". She also holds the record for the most number one debuts with 14 songs.
- Adele is the first and only artist to top 1 million downloads in weekly sales with a song. She has done it with "Hello".
- Ed Sheeran is the first artist to debut two songs at the top two spots for the same week. He has done it with "Shape of You" and "Castle on the Hill".
- Lauren Daigle holds the record for the highest-ever debut by a contemporary Christian artist. She achieved this when "You Say" debuted at #5 on the chart dated July 28, 2018.
- Lady Gaga is the first artist to debut three songs in the top 10 and the only artist to occupy the top four spots for the same week. She has done it with "Shallow", "I'll Never Love Again", "Always Remember Us This Way" and "Is That Alright?" on the week dated October 20, 2018.
- Lady Gaga is the first and only artist to simultaneously occupy the top three spots in two consecutive weeks. She achieved this on the week dated October 20, 2018 and on the chart dated October 27, 2018 with "Shallow", "Always Remember Us This Way" and "I'll Never Love Again".