SZA’s album SOS returned to the top of the chart after nearly two years thanks to the release of SOS Deluxe: LANA on December 20. Originally released in December 2022, SOS was incredibly successful, spending 10 weeks at number one on the Billboard 200 and receiving nine Grammy nominations. The expanded version, SOS Deluxe: LANA, added 15 tracks on top of the original 23 for a total of 38 songs. The deluxe version is considered to be the same album as the original, meaning numbers charting their performance are combined. Consequently, SOS spent its 11th week at number one—the most weeks for an R&B/hip hop album since Views by Drake spent an impressive 13 weeks at the top back in 2016. It’s also the most weeks in the genre for a female artist, tying with Mariah Carey’s debut 1991 album.

SOS had last spent the week at number one on the March 4, 2023 chart, making the gap between then and its return to the top now, 22 months later, the longest in the Billboard 200’s history. But really, even though SOS had dropped down from number one, it never actually disappeared, having remained in the top 20 within the Billboard 200 for 107 weeks. Consequently, it ended up being number three on the 2023 year-end chart and number six in 2024.

Weekly sales of SOS came out to 178,000 units, including 167,000 units from 220 million streams, making it the number-one album on the Top Streaming Albums chart.
The album sold 10,000 copies, landing it at number 23 on Top Album Sales. Streaming and sales of the 15 new tracks alone amounted to 105,000 units, which would’ve made the album number one by themselves. It even surpassed Michael Bublé’s Christmas, which came in at number two with 100,000 units sold.

The December 26 cutoff for this week’s chart marked the end of the holiday season. In addition to Bublé’s album, Bing Crosby’s Ultimate Christmas was number three, and the Nat King Cole album The Christmas Song came in at number four. Beyond these big three holiday albums, Frank Sinatra’s own Ultimate Christmas hit number 10, marking its first time in the top 10 and the singer’s 33rd top-10 album, the most of any solo male artist. As for groups, the Rolling Stones leads with 38, and among female soloists, Barbra Streisand holds the record with 34.

Mariah Carey’s single “All I Want for Christmas Is You” topped the charts for its fourth week this holiday season and its 18th week overall, placing it just one week away from joining all-time record holders, “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” by Shaboozey and “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X—a record Carey will very likely achieve next holiday season.

The song saw a 50% increase in streaming from the previous week, reaching 71.9 million streams and breaking the all-time streaming record for holiday songs. On the Streaming Songs chart, it secured its 22nd number one, steadily extending its own record. The holiday hit also reclaimed the top spot on Digital Song Sales for the sixth time and jumped from 16th to 7th in airplay, marking its first top-10 appearance on the Radio Songs chart. By comparison, when the song was first released in 1994, it only went as high as number 12.

As the holiday season reached its zenith, the top 16 songs on the Billboard 100 were all holiday hits. Ariana Grande’s “Santa Tell Me” jumped up to number nine last week—the newest Christmas song in the top 10—then climbed to number five this week, becoming the eighth holiday single to ever reach the top five. The best-performing song outside of the holiday block occupying the top of the chart was Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’ duet “Die With a Smile” at number 17, after being edged out from its spot at number six last week.

Meanwhile, “All I Want for Christmas Is You” also dominated both the Global 200 and Global 200 Excl. US this week, topping them for the 19th and 14th weeks, respectively. The single was streamed globally 197.9 million times—the seventh-highest weekly streaming figure in history. With holiday songs occupying the top four spots on the Global 200, ROSÉ and Bruno Mars’ “APT.” ranked number five. In fact, 17 of the top 20 songs were festive tracks, but as the new year approaches, songs like “APT.,” “Die With a Smile,” and “BIRDS OF A FEATHER” are expected to reclaim the top of the charts.

With SOS Deluxe: LANA, SZA has redefined what a deluxe album can be. Traditional deluxe releases act as an anniversary celebration of an old classic, contextualizing and enhancing the original with alternate takes, live performances, and B-sides. More recently, deluxe releases serve as marketing tools, adding new tracks just days or weeks after an album’s initial release to maintain streaming and sales momentum. The intention behind each may differ, but both approaches keep the original version untouched as “disc one.” SOS, too, was good enough that it could have received the same treatment. Originally released in December 2022, SZA’s album sold 318,000 copies and accumulated over 400 million streams in its first week alone, spending a total of 10 weeks at number one. SZA became a new R&B force to be reckoned with, drawing comparisons to women like Adele, Mariah Carey, and Whitney Houston. As critically acclaimed as it was commercially successful, the album earned nine Grammy nominations in 2024, including Album, Record, and Song of the Year—the most nominations for the year.

Curiously, SOS Deluxe: LANA arrived two years after the original—far too early for a commemorative release, and much too late for the immediacy demanded of a sales strategy. Moreover, the 15 new tracks take over the first half of the album, pushing the original 23 songs to the latter half, intentionally positioning the fresh material as the stars of the show. Why? Because SZA had a vision for what would make the album complete. Since her 2017 debut album, Ctrl, the artist had written and recorded some 100 tracks, giving concertgoers a taste of some them over the five intervening years. The result was a number of songs left off the original 23-track SOS that fans were clamoring for. In the summer of 2023, she revealed the name LANA and began performing unreleased songs, including those that would go on to be called “Saturn,” “Diamond Boy (DTM),” and “BMF” (formerly “Boy from South Detroit”) at a free show in New York.

At that point, it was unclear whether LANA was going to be an extension of SOS or an entirely new album. In February 2024, the wait seemed to be over when “Saturn” was officially released as a single. But in March, after some of the tracks off LANA leaked, SZA announced she would be restarting from scratch. There was more news in December, but this time, it was different. On the 16th, alongside a snippet of the music video for “Drive” that included Ben Stiller, SZA announced SOS Deluxe: LANA would be released on December 20.

This is nothing new for SZA. Ctrl, her debut album, took four years to complete, and the deluxe version came out five years after that. All in, SOS took seven years, from the first takes to the deluxe edition. In short, SZA is a perfectionist, and a SZA release isn’t properly complete until she says so. But she also knows that what truly makes them whole is when she shares them with the world so her fans can hear. That’s also why, immediately after releasing LANA, she petitioned her label to put out even more unreleased tracks. To SZA, an album isn’t a task that’s wrapped up at some point, but one knot tied in an endless flow of creativity. As long as we get to follow SZA on her creative journey, the particular shape it takes doesn’t matter—whether her new songs end up as a separate album or a deluxe-deluxe version.

The ROSÉ/Bruno Mars duet “APT.” is number five on the Global 200 and number three on the Global Excl. US charts. Fans are watching closely to see if it will reclaim number one on next week’s charts as the holiday season comes to a close. The single is number 34 on the Hot 100, number 47 for streaming, number four in digital songs, and number 10 in airplay. ROSÉ’s album rosie is number 32 on the Billboard 200, number 50 on the Top Streaming Albums chart, and number 20 on Top Album Sales. The BLACKPINK member comes in at number 47 on the Artist 100.

HOP by Stray Kids is number 13 on the Billboard 200 and number one on the Top Album Sales chart. The group sits at number 19 on the Artist 100 chart.

TWICE’s 14th mini album, STRATEGY, is number 85 on the Billboard 200 and number nine on the Top Album Sales chart, while the girl group is number 81 on the Artist 100.

Jimin’s album MUSE is number 142 on the Billboard 200. The track “Who” sits at number 49 on the Streaming Songs chart and number 46 on the Global 200.

ROMANCE: UNTOLD by ENHYPEN is number 166 on the Billboard 200 and number 26 on Top Album Sales.

On the Heatseekers Albums chart, the KATSEYE EP SIS (Soft Is Strong) is number five, while XG’s EP AWE is number 22.

On Emerging Artists, ILLIT is number 16, KATSEYE is 20, NCT DREAM is 26, XG is 39, and LISA is 40.

Now, here’s a closer look at how K-pop artists are performing on the Global 200.