Billboard Hot 100 facts for kids

The current Billboard Hot 100 logo

The Billboard Hot 100 is a super important list of the most popular songs in the United States. It's published every week by Billboard magazine. This list shows which songs people are buying, streaming online, and listening to on the radio.

The chart ranks songs based on how many copies are sold (both physical and digital), how often they are played on online streaming services, and how much radio airplay they get across the U.S.

Billboard releases a new chart online every Tuesday. This chart is then dated for the following Saturday, which is when the printed magazine comes out. Since July 2015, Billboard has counted sales and streaming from Friday to Thursday each week. Radio plays are also tracked during this same Friday to Thursday period, starting from July 17, 2021.

The very first song to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 was "Poor Little Fool" by Ricky Nelson. This happened on August 4, 1958. As of the chart for the week ending on February 21, 2026, there have been 1,188 different songs that reached the top spot. The song currently at number one is "DTMF" by Bad Bunny.

Discovering the History of the Hot 100 Chart

Older Billboard Hot 100 logos

Billboard magazine started listing popular songs a long time ago, back in July 1913. Their first list showed the best-selling sheet music. Over the years, they added other lists that tracked popular songs played in theaters and on the radio.

In 1936, Billboard began publishing "Ten Best Records for Week Ending." This list showed the top 10 selling records from three big record companies. Later, in 1938, they created "The Billboard Record Buying Guide." This guide combined radio plays and sheet music sales to show which records were truly popular.

This led to a full-page "Billboard Music Popularity Chart" in July 1940. It included lists for songs played in jukeboxes, retail sales, sheet music sales, and radio plays. The song "I'll Never Smile Again" by Tommy Dorsey was the first number one on the "Best Selling Retail Records" list, which was an early version of today's pop chart.

How the Hot 100 Chart Evolved

Before the Hot 100, Billboard had several different charts. Starting in 1945, the main chart was the Honor Roll of Hits. This chart ranked the most popular songs overall, no matter who sang them. It looked at record sales, sheet music sales, and how often songs were played by DJs and in jukeboxes.

When rock and roll music became popular around 1955, Billboard had three main charts:

• Best Sellers in Stores: This chart listed the top-selling songs in music stores.
• Most Played by Jockeys: This chart showed the songs played most often on U.S. radio stations.
• Most Played in Jukeboxes: This chart tracked the songs played most in jukeboxes. Jukeboxes were a big way for young people to listen to music back then.

In November 1955, Billboard introduced The Top 100. This new chart combined sales, radio plays, and jukebox activity into one list. It gave more importance to sales than to radio plays. The first song to hit number one on The Top 100 was "Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing" by The Four Aces.

The Birth of the Hot 100

Over time, jukeboxes became less popular. So, in 1957, Billboard stopped publishing the "Most Played in Jukeboxes" chart. Then, on August 4, 1958, Billboard launched one big chart for all types of songs: the Hot 100. The very first number one song on this new chart was "Poor Little Fool" by Ricky Nelson. The Hot 100 quickly became the main way to measure a song's popularity in the U.S.

The Hot 100 was created by journalists Tom Noonan, Paul Ackerman, and Seymour Stein. Today, the Billboard Hot 100 still uses information from radio plays, sales (both in stores and online), and streaming from online music services to rank songs.

How the Hot 100 Chart is Made

The Billboard Hot 100 chart is put together using information from three main areas:

• Sales: This includes how many copies of a song are bought, both as physical CDs or vinyl, and as digital downloads from places like iTunes.
• Streaming: This counts how many times a song is played on online streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube.
• Radio Airplay: This measures how often a song is played on radio stations across the United States.

Understanding the Chart Week

The tracking week for sales, streaming, and radio airplay starts on Friday and ends on Thursday. This means all the data collected during these days helps decide the rankings for the next chart.

Billboard then puts together the new chart and releases it online every Tuesday. The chart is officially dated for the Saturday that follows. For example:

• If the tracking week starts on Friday, January 1, and ends on Thursday, January 7.
• The new chart will be released online on Tuesday, January 12.
• This chart will be officially dated for Saturday, January 16.

Key Parts of the Hot 100

The Hot 100 uses several smaller charts to get its final rankings:

• Radio Songs: This chart tracks how many times songs are played on about 1,000 different radio stations. It covers many music styles like pop, R&B, hip hop, country, and rock.
• Digital Song Sales: This chart counts how many times songs are downloaded digitally.
• Streaming Songs: This chart measures how many times songs are streamed on various online music services, including on-demand songs and music videos.

How the Hot 100 Chart Rules Have Changed

The way Billboard collects and uses data for the Hot 100 has changed many times. These changes help the chart stay accurate and show what's truly popular in music. The main goal is to reflect what people are listening to and buying.

Double-Sided Songs

In the past, many songs were released on "double-sided singles." This meant a record had an "A-side" (the main song) and a "B-side" (another song). Sometimes, both sides became popular! For a while, Billboard listed these two sides together if they both got a lot of radio play. But eventually, this rule became less important as records started having the same song on both sides, or more complex releases with many tracks.

Album Songs on the Chart

For a long time, a song could only be on the Hot 100 if it was sold as a single. But in the 1990s, many popular songs were played a lot on the radio but never released as singles. Record companies sometimes did this to encourage people to buy the whole album instead.

This changed on December 5, 1998. Billboard decided that songs could now enter the Hot 100 even if they weren't sold as a separate single. This was a big change, making the Hot 100 a "songs" chart instead of just a "singles" chart. This allowed many popular radio hits to finally appear on the main chart. Some famous songs that were huge radio hits but couldn't chart before this rule change include:

• 1995: "I'll Be There for You" by The Rembrandts
• 1996: "Don't Speak" by No Doubt
• 1998: "Iris" by Goo Goo Dolls

EPs and the Charts

Extended play (EP) releases are like mini-albums, usually with four to six songs. In the early days, EPs could appear on the Hot 100. But as full-length albums became more popular, Billboard decided to move EPs to the Billboard 200 chart, which is for albums. They are still listed there today.

Digital Music and Streaming

Technology has changed how we listen to music, and the Hot 100 has changed with it!

• Digital Downloads: Since February 12, 2005, the Hot 100 has counted paid digital downloads from online stores like iTunes. This made a big difference, allowing songs to jump up the chart very quickly based on strong online sales.
• Online Streaming: In August 2007, Billboard started including data from streaming media services like AOL Music and Yahoo! Music. Later, in 2013, they added streams from services like Spotify and even views from YouTube videos to the Hot 100 formula. The song "Harlem Shake" was the first number one hit after YouTube views were included.
• Bundles: In July 2020, Billboard made a rule change about "bundles." These are when a song is sold together with merchandise (like a T-shirt) from an artist's website. To make sure the chart is fair, Billboard now only counts these sales when the physical item is actually shipped to the customer. This stops artists from boosting their chart positions unfairly.

Remixes and New Versions

Sometimes, a song gets a "remix" that sounds very different from the original. If a remix changes the song so much that it's almost a new song, Billboard now counts its radio plays separately. This means a song's original version and a very different remix might appear on the chart as two separate entries.

Keeping the Chart Fresh: Recurrent Rules

To make sure the Hot 100 always shows the most current and popular songs, Billboard has rules about when older songs are removed. These are called "recurrent rules."

As of October 25, 2025, a song is usually moved to "recurrent status" (meaning it leaves the main Hot 100 chart) if:

• It has been on the chart for 20 weeks and falls below position number 50.
• It falls below position 25 and has been on the chart for at least 26 weeks.
• It falls below position 10 and has been on the chart for at least 52 weeks.
• It falls below position 5 and has been on the chart for at least 78 weeks.

However, there are special exceptions! Holiday songs, like Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You", can return to the chart each December, even if they are old. Also, if an older song suddenly becomes very popular again, Billboard might allow it to re-enter the chart. These rules help the chart make space for new artists and songs while still recognizing timeless hits.

These stricter rules were put in place because streaming has changed how people listen to music. Songs often stay popular for much longer now, and radio stations play popular songs for extended periods. For example, Teddy Swims' "Lose Control" was on the chart for a record 112 weeks before it became recurrent in October 2025!

Global Release Day

In July 2015, Billboard changed its tracking week to match a new "Global Release Date." Now, new music is released on Fridays in many countries around the world, including the United States. This change helps keep the chart consistent with global music trends.

How Year-End Charts Are Calculated

Billboard also creates "year-end charts" to show the most popular songs of the entire year. The "chart year" for Billboard runs from the first week of December to the last week of November. This special calendar allows them to finish calculating the year-end charts and publish them before the end of December.

Today, year-end charts are calculated by adding up all the sales, streaming, and radio play points a song earned throughout the year. This gives a very accurate picture of which songs were truly the most popular. Sometimes, a song that was very popular at the end of one year might also appear on the next year's chart, as its points are split between the two chart years.

Other Popular Music Charts

Billboard also has other charts similar to the Hot 100 for different regions:

• The Canadian Hot 100 started in June 2007 for Canada.
• The Billboard Japan Hot 100 started in May 2008 for Japan.
• The Billboard Vietnam Hot 100 started in January 2022 for Vietnam.

See also

In Spanish: Billboard Hot 100 para niños