‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Tops Billboard’s Soundtracks Chart for 61 Weeks, One Short of the Record

Billboard’s Top Soundtracks chart has seen KPop Demon Hunters sit at number one for 61 weeks, falling short of the all-time record by a single week. The chart itself started in 2001, leaving off some of the largest movie soundtracks from an earlier time, including West Side Story, The Sound of Music, Doctor Zhivago, Saturday Night Fever and Purple Rain. The one exception to that gap is the 1965 TV soundtrack A Charlie Brown Christmas, which returned to the charts after 2001.

KPop Demon Hunters has been No. 1 for all but four of its 65 weeks on the chart. It gave up the top spot for one week each to:

• Wicked: For Good
• The holiday perennial A Charlie Brown Christmas
• Charli xcx’s Wuthering Heights
• The soundtrack to this year’s most-talked-about TV miniseries, Heated Rivalry

The Record Is Within Reach

The KPop Demon Hunters album is currently on track to break a chart record. It has to hold its position for just one more week at No. 1, which would make it the longest time spent atop the chart.

Over the years, the chart has featured a number of soundtracks with extended runs at the top. The following list presents those 12 soundtracks that have led the chart for 25 weeks or more, arranged from lowest to highest total time spent at number one:

1. Twisters: The Album — 25 weeks
2. High School Musical — 26 weeks
3. Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper, A Star Is Born — 26 weeks
4. The Vince Guaraldi Trio, A Charlie Brown Christmas — 31 weeks
5. Barbie: The Album — 33 weeks
6. O Brother, Where Art Thou? — 34 weeks
7. The Greatest Showman — 34 weeks
8. Encanto — 41 weeks

What the List Says

The five soundtracks that have spent the most time at No. 1 on the chart come from animated films, which makes for an odd situation since the list was built to follow movie soundtracks.

The list demonstrates just how wide-ranging the chart’s makeup has been over time. It includes Twisters, a country record featuring a Luke Combs single, along with High School Musical, which was a Disney TV show. Then there is O Brother, Where Art Thou?, a folk-country soundtrack. Barbie: The Album is a pop collection carrying contributions from Dua Lipa, PinkPantheress and Nicki Minaj. And A Star Is Born stands as a rock collaboration between Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper.

While the chart leaves out several of the most famous movie soundtracks from the past hundred years, that omission should be understood as an oddity rather than a weakness.

It is remarkable that a K-pop show’s score has outlived all of its peers.

The KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack is on track to break a new record, and if it does, it will become the chart’s longest-reigning soundtrack ever.

Source material: “‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Has Led Billboard’s Top Soundtracks Chart for 61 Weeks: Only One Soundtrack Has Led Longer (Full List),” Billboard.

Billboard · K-pop · KPop Demon Hunters · record holder · soundtrack chart