YouTube plans to resume sending data to U.S. Billboard charts in 2027, after its data was removed in January 2026, the company said on November 9, 2026. YouTube’s announcement describes the return as a plan, not a completed change.
Billboard’s coverage of the announcement names the Billboard 200 and Hot 100. The reported stream-to-album conversion applies to the Billboard 200.
How streams count toward a Billboard 200 album unit
An album unit is a measure that brings album sales, individual track sales and streams onto a shared scale. MusicRow and Hypebot report that the revised Billboard 200 formula counts 1,000 paid-subscription on-demand streams or 1,500 ad-supported on-demand streams as one album unit. The previous ad-supported threshold was 2,500 streams. MusicRow says one album unit also equals one album sale or 10 individual track sales from that album.
Under the reported Billboard 200 formula, an album unit takes fewer ad-supported streams to reach than it did under the previous threshold.
YouTube said it objected to the earlier weighting because it gave subscription-supported streams more weight than ad-supported listening and undervalued fans without subscriptions. The company says Billboard’s revised methodology better reflects listening across both types of service.
When the change is scheduled to appear
Hypebot reports that the first tracking week under the revised formula is scheduled for January 1–7, 2027, with the corresponding charts dated January 16.
