In the first half of 2022, the Encanto soundtrack and its smash hit “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” were the most popular album and most-streamed song (by on-demand streams), respectively, at the midyear point in the U.S., according to Luminate. (See charts, below.)
‘Encanto’ Enchants: For the tracking period of Dec. 31, 2021, through June 30, 2022, Walt Disney Records’ Encanto soundtrack was the most popular album in the U.S. The companion album to the Academy Award-winning animated film was released in late 2021 and earned 1.516 million equivalent album units in the first half of 2022. (See full top 10 chart, below.) Encanto spent nine nonconsecutive weeks atop the weekly Billboard 200 chart in January-March – the most weeks at No. 1 for any soundtrack since Walt Disney Records’ own Frozen chilled at No. 1 for 13 nonconsecutive weeks in 2014.
Meanwhile, the Encanto album’s “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” was the most-streamed song of the first half of 2022 in the U.S., with 628.23 million on-demand audio and video streams combined (inclusive of user-generated content streams). “Bruno,” credited to Carolina Gaitán, Maura Castillo, Adassa, Rhenzy Feliz, Diane Guerrero, Stephanie Beatriz and the Encanto Cast (all singing in the characters that they voice in the film), spent five weeks, all in a row, at No. 1 on the weekly Billboard Hot 100 chart in February and March.
Equivalent album units – for album titles and chart rankings cited below (but not industry volume numbers) – comprise traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sales, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album, or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official and audio streams generated by songs from an album.
Equivalent album units cited for album titles below, and in the “Midyear Top 10 Albums in U.S.” chart do not include user-generated content (UGC) streams. UGC streams are included in Luminate’s industry volume numbers and its midyear song streaming rankings. (UGC streams are not factored into any of Billboard’s weekly charts.)
For the sake of clarity, equivalent album units do not include listening to music on broadcast radio or digital radio broadcasts. All numbers cited in this story are rounded, and for the U.S. only. Programmed streams are not included in any of the data in this story.
Luminate (formerly MRC Data, Nielsen Music and SoundScan) began tracking music consumption in 1991. Luminate’s sales, streaming and airplay data is used to compile Billboard’s weekly charts.
Of Encanto’s 1.516 million equivalent album units earned at midyear, SEA units comprise 1.279 million (equaling 1.876 billion on-demand official streams of the set’s tracks), album sales comprise a little more than 202,000 and TEA units comprise just over 34,000.
The top five most popular albums at the midyear point in the U.S. are Encanto, Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti (1.287 million equivalent album units), Morgan Wallen’s January 2021 release Dangerous: The Double Album (1.216 million), Harry Styles’ Harry’s House (1.180 million) and Gunna’s DS4Ever (926,000). Dangerous was tops at the midyear point in 2021 and finished the year as the most popular album.
2022’s Midyear Top 10 Albums in U.S. (by Equivalent Album Units)
1. Soundtrack, Encanto (1.516 million)
2. Bad Bunny, Un Verano Sin Ti (1.287 million)
3. Morgan Wallen, Dangerous: The Double Album (1.216 million)
4. Harry Styles, Harry’s House (1.180 million)
5. Gunna, DS4Ever (926,000)
6. The Weeknd, The Highlights (873,000)
7. Olivia Rodrigo, Sour (866,000)
8. Lil Durk, 7220 (831,000)
9. Future, I Never Liked You (810,000)
10. Drake, Certified Lover Boy (790,000)
Source: Luminate, for the tracking period Dec. 31, 2021, through June 30, 2022. UGC streams are not included in this chart, but are included in Luminate’s on-demand streaming charts (below). Luminate’s equivalent album unit totals include SEA and TEA for an album’s songs registered before an album’s release, but only during the tracking period.
Total Album Consumption Rises 9.3% at Midyear: Year-to-date, total equivalent album units stand at 475.41 million – up 9.3% compared to the first half of 2021 (435.03 million in the tracking period of Jan. 1 through July 1, 2021).
Album Sales Decline, But Vinyl Continues to Grow: Total album sales across all formats (physical CDs, vinyl, cassettes, etc., along with digital album downloads) declined by 8.4% in the first half of 2022 as compared to the same point in 2021. At the 2022 midyear point, 46.94 million albums were sold – down from 51.26 million in the comparably span a year ago. The top-selling album of 2022 thus far is Harry Styles’ Harry’s House, with 484,000 sold.
Breaking down album sales further, there were 36.54 million physical albums sold (down 4.7% compared to 38.34 million at midyear 2021) and 10.4 million digital albums sold (down 19.6% compared to 12.93 million a midyear 2021).
CD album sales declined by 10.7% in the first half of 2022 (16.89 million vs. 18.9 million at midyear 2021), while, conversely, vinyl album sales increased by 1% (19.4 million vs. 19.2 million at midyear 2021).
The top-selling album across all physical formats at the midyear point is Harry’s House, with 449,000 sold. The biggest-selling CD album in the first half of 2022 was BTS’ Proof with 328,000 copies sold. The top-selling digital album was the Encanto soundtrack with 122,000 sold. And the top-selling album on vinyl was Harry’s House with 279,000.
BTS was the top-selling artist by total album sales in the first half of 2022, with 644,000 albums sold across its entire catalog across all formats. The group was also the top-seller in total physical album sales (628,000) and in CD album sales (628,000; BTS has not released any albums on other physical formats). Styles was the top-selling act in terms of vinyl album sales, with 381,000 copies sold. The top-selling artist in 2022’s first half in terms of digital album sales was Kendrick Lamar, with 52,000 paid album downloads sold (with 44,000 of that from his 2022 release, Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers).
2022’s Midyear Top 10 Selling Albums in U.S. (Physical & Digital Album Sales Combined)
1. Harry Styles, Harry’s House (484,000)
2. BTS, Proof (335,000)
3. Olivia Rodrigo, Sour (217,000)
4. Adele, 30 (203,000)
5. Soundtrack, Encanto (202,000)
6. Stray Kids, Oddinary (173,000)
7. The Weeknd, Dawn FM (156,000)
8. Red Hot Chili Peppers, Unlimited Love (153,000)
9. Fleetwood Mac, Rumours (152,000)
10. TOMORROW X TOGETHER, Minisode2: Thursday’s Child (152,000)
Source: Luminate, for the tracking period of Dec. 31, 2021, through June 30, 2022.
2022’s Midyear Top 10 Selling Vinyl Albums
1. Harry Styles, Harry’s House (279,000)
2. Olivia Rodrigo, Sour (155,000)
3. Kendrick Lamar, Good Kid, M.A.A.D City (121,000)
4. Fleetwood Mac, Rumours (121,000)
5. Nirvana, Nevermind (84,000)
6. Tyler, The Creator, Call Me If You Get Lost (76,000)
7. Prince and The Revolution, Purple Rain (Soundtrack) (76,000)
8. Red Hot Chili Peppers, Unlimited Love (75,000)
9. Childish Gambino, Awaken, My Love! (75,000)
10. Taylor Swift, Folklore (74,000)
Source: Luminate, for the tracking period of Dec. 31, 2021, through June 30, 2022.
On-Demand Streaming Up Nearly 12%, ‘Bruno’ Top Song: “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” the breakout hit from the Encanto soundtrack, was the most-streamed song in the first half of 2022 in the U.S., with 628.23 million on-demand streams (inclusive of UGC). The top five most-streamed tunes at midyear were rounded out by Lil Nas X and Jack Harlow’s “Industry Baby,” Glass Animals’ “Heat Waves,” Kodak Black’s “Super Gremlin” and Imagine Dragons and JID’s “Enemy.” Meanwhile, another Encanto hit, Jessica Darrow’s “Surface Pressure,” joins “Bruno” in the top 10.
Total on-demand streams (audio and video combined) at midyear grew 11.6% in the U.S. as compared to the same point a year ago (620.23 billion vs. 555.86 billion). On-demand audio streams jumped 12.4% (543.21 billion vs. 483.38 billion) while on-demand video streams increased 6.3% (77.02 billion vs. 72.48 billion).
UGC streams are included in Luminate’s industry streaming on-demand volume numbers (above) and its midyear streaming song charts (below). UGC streams are not factored into any of Billboard’s weekly charts.
2022’s Midyear Top 10 Most Streamed Songs in U.S. (On-Demand Audio & Video Combined)
1. Carolina Gaitán, Maura Castillo, Adassa, Rhenzy Feliz, Diane Guerrero, Stephanie Beatriz & Encanto Cast, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” (628.23 million)
2. Lil Nas X & Jack Harlow, “Industry Baby” (508.31 million)
3. Glass Animals, “Heat Waves” (445.48 million)
4. Kodak Black, “Super Gremlin” (444.12 million)
5. Imagine Dragons X JID, “Enemy” (406.35 million)
6. Harry Styles, “As It Was” (394.45 million)
7. The Kid LAROI & Justin Bieber, “Stay” (362.73 million)
8. Jessica Darrow, “Surface Pressure” (332.7 million)
9. Jack Harlow, “First Class” (320.45 million)
10. GAYLE, “abcdefu” (306.32 million)
Source: Luminate, for the tracking period of Dec. 31, 2021, through June 30, 2022. Includes UGC streams.
2022’s Midyear Top 10 Most Streamed Songs in U.S. (On-Demand Audio)
1. Carolina Gaitán, Maura Castillo, Adassa, Rhenzy Feliz, Diane Guerrero, Stephanie Beatriz & Encanto Cast, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” (342.53 million)
2. Kodak Black, “Super Gremlin” (338.44 million)
3. Glass Animals, “Heat Waves” (326.02 million)
4. Harry Styles, “As It Was” (315.69 million)
5. Jack Harlow, “First Class” (273.31 million)
6. Gunna & Future featuring Young Thug, “Pushin P” (246.04 million)
7. The Kid LAROI & Justin Bieber, “Stay” (229.92 million)
8. Future featuring Drake & Tems, “Wait for U” (227.19)
9. GAYLE, “abcdefu” (222.45 million)
10. Jessica Darrow, “Surface Pressure” (216.26 million)
Source: Luminate, for the tracking period of Dec. 31, 2021, through June 30, 2022. Includes UGC streams.
Digital Song Sales Fall 21%: Digital song sales tumbled 21.4% in the first half of the year, declining to 79.98 million, as compared to 101.78 million sold in the first half of 2021. The top-selling digital song so far in 2022 is Latto’s “Big Energy,” with 161,000 downloads sold. Only eight songs sold more than 100,000 downloads in the first half of 2022. At midyear 2021, there were 13 songs that had sold 100,000-plus.
2022’s Midyear Top 10 Selling Digital Songs in U.S.
1. Latto, “Big Energy” (161,000)
2. Elton John & Dua Lipa, “Cold Heart (PNAU Remix)” (152,000)
3. Carolina Gaitán, Maura Castillo, Adassa, Rhenzy Feliz, Diane Guerrero, Stephanie Beatriz & Encanto Cast, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” (126,000)
4. Walker Hayes, “AA” (118,000)
5. GAYLE, “abcdefu” (117,000)
6. Lizzo, “About Damn Time” (114,000)
7. Harry Styles, “As It Was” (106,000)
8. Cody Johnson, “‘Til You Can’t” (106,000)
9. Ed Sheeran, “Shivers” (94,000)
10. Walker Hayes, “Fancy Like” (91,000)
Source: Luminate, for the tracking period of Dec. 31, 2021, through June 30, 2022.
‘Heat Waves’ Hottest on Radio: The most-heard song on U.S. radio in the first half of 2022 was Glass Animals’ “Heat Waves,” with a cumulative 1.676 billion audience impressions across all formats monitored by Luminate. The durable hit was released in late June 2020 and, its profile heightened by interaction on TikTok and its crossover from alternative to pop and adult radio formats, completed a record 59-week climb to No. 1 on the Hot 100 in March. Meanwhile, Justin Bieber, Ed Sheeran and Doja Cat each boast two titles among the 10 most-heard songs in the first half of 2022. Also notably, unlike the more immediate metrics of streaming and sales, with radio more conservative and research-based, none of the 10 top radio songs in the first half of 2022 were released this year; below “Heat Waves,” the other nine were all released in 2021.
2022’s Midyear Top 10 Radio Songs in U.S. (Based on Audience Impressions)
1. Glass Animals, “Heat Waves” (1.676 billion)
2. The Kid LAROI & Justin Bieber, “Stay” (1.668 billion)
3. Adele, “Easy On Me” (1.456 billion)
4. Justin Bieber, “Ghost” (1.440 billion)
5. Lil Nas X, “That’s What I Want” (1.378 billion)
6. Latto, “Big Energy” (1.339 billion)
7. Ed Sheeran, “Bad Habits” (1.244 billion)
8. Ed Sheeran, “Shivers” (1.144 billion)
9. Doja Cat, “Woman” (1.062 billion)
10. Doja Cat, “Need to Know” (1.055 billion)
Source: Luminate, for the tracking period of Dec. 31, 2021, through June 30, 2022.
Additional reporting by Gary Trust.
