It’s the biggest honor that an act can claim on Billboard’s charts each year: the coveted No. 1 spot on the annual Top Artists recap.
As of 2025, the category ranks the year’s best-performing acts based on activity on the Billboard 200 albums chart and the Billboard Hot 100 songs survey, as well as Billboard Boxscore, which recaps touring data.
Morgan Wallen finishes atop the 2025 Top Artists chart for the first time, following the monster success of his 2025 album, I’m the Problem, and its hit songs. Wallen is the first act who primarily records country music to crown the list since Taylor Swift in 2009, prior to her segue to pop.
Swift, meanwhile, ruled the 2024 Top Artists tally, making history in the process: As the superstar was also the year-end top artist in 2009, 2015 and 2023, she is the only act to earn the honor four times, since the category launched in 1981. Previously, Swift and Adele (2011, 2012 and 2016) were tied with three year-end titles. Meanwhile, in 2023 Swift became the first act to finish at No. 1 in three distinct decades.
Beyond Swift’s four year-end victories and Adele’s three, eight artists have each claimed the distinction of leading Top Artists twice: Drake (2018, 2021), Post Malone (2019, 2020; he stood as the last artist until Swift to rank at No. 1 in consecutive years), Chris Brown (2006, 2008), 50 Cent (2003, 2005), Usher (1998, 2004), Destiny’s Child (2000, 2001), Garth Brooks (1992, 1993) and New Kids on the Block (1989, 1990).
Wallen’s 2025 Top Artists win and Swift’s in 2023-24 follow Bad Bunny’s rule in 2022, when he became the first leading act who primarily records Spanish-language music.
From the first list in 1981 to 2025, browse every act who has dominated the annual Top Artists chart, as revealed in every year-end Billboard issue, encompassing superstars in pop, country, R&B/hip-hop, rock and more.
