Billboard End of the Year Charts, 2018

Original Story by Aaron J. Sams (2018-12-04)

Billboard in the US does an annual wrap up of their charts each year. This is usually done in the first week of December and looks back over the previous year. When they did their wrap up for 2017, Songs of Experience hadn’t yet been released, and thus missed the wrap up for last year, but it, and several songs from the album have made the list for the wrap up of charts in 2018.

These year end rankings for 2018 cover the chart performance on Billboard’s charts dated December 2 to November 17, 2018.

Overall Charts

Top Artists (Overall) #60: U2

Overall U2 falls at the #60 position when Billboard ranked all of the artists against all charts for this year. The category overall was won by Drake. U2 fell between Rich the Kid (#59) and Selena Gomez (#61) on this chart. Imagine Dragons, the top group, came in at #7 on this chart for the year. This chart is a combination of chart performance on the Billboard Hot 100 singles, the Billboard 200 albums, the Billboard Social 50 chart, as well as Boxscore touring revenue.

Top Artists (Duo or a Group) #7: U2

When you look at just the groups, or duos, U2 comes in at #7 for the year. Ahead of them in the charts? Imagine Dragons comes in at the top of this chart followed by BTS, Migos, Maroon 5, Florida Georgia Line, and Panic! at the Disco. This chart is determined by a combination of an artists performance on the Billboard Hot 100 singles, the Billboard 200 albums, as well as Boxscore touring revenue.

Song Charts:

Hot Rock Songs 2018 #81: “You’re The Best Thing About Me” – U2

“You’re The Best Thing About Me” comes in at #81. It is their only song on this chart, falling between The Struts (“Body Talks”) and Blue October (“I Hope You’re Happy”) on the chart. This chart is made up of Radio Airplay, Sales Data and Streaming Data. As “You’re The Best Thing About Me” was released in September, it has placed highly on the chart, considering the earliest weeks of its run would have been in the previous year. In fact in 2017’s chart? “You’re The Best Thing About Me” finished at #63 on the Hot Rock Songs 2017 chart.

Top Adult Alternative Songs 2018 #15: “Get Out of Your Own Way” – U2

“Get Out of Your Own Way” is the only song to appear on the year end chart for “Adult Alternative” this year. This chart is a count of radio airplay and does not include sales figures.

Top Dance Club Songs 2018 #24: “Love is Bigger Than Anything in its Way” – U2

Remember all of those remixes that U2 released for “Love is Bigger Than Anything in its Way” that were sent to DJs for promotion but were never released commercially? That was an attempt to get U2 climbing the Dance Club Songs chart in 2018, and it worked. They reached #1 on the chart at the end of the summer. And it was a strong enough performance that they come in at #24 overall for the year. This chart is based entirely on reports submitted by a national sample of club DJs.

Top Adult Contemporary Songs 2018 #42: “Love is Bigger Than Anything in its Way” – U2

“Love is Bigger Than Anything in its Way” didn’t just do well at the clubs, it also made a dent on Adult Contemporary Radio, and comes in at #42 here at the year end. This chart is a count of radio airplay on Adult Contemporary stations and does not include any sales figures.

Album Charts:

Top Billboard 200 Albums 2008 #131: Songs of Experience – U2

The Billboard 200 chart is the main album chart which measures artists based on sales and streaming each week. It includes all genres of music, and also includes individual songs of popular tracks. Songs of Experience finishes at #131 for the year compared to all other albums. The top album this year? reputation by Taylor Swift. At #131, U2 falls between Charlie Puth (Voicenotes, #130) and Chance the Rapper (Coloring Book, #132)

Top Rock Albums 2018 #19: Songs of Experience – U2

When you split out just the Rock Albums, U2 fares better. At #19 they are between Greta Van Fleet (From the Fires, #18) and AC/DC (Back in Black, #20). Top of the Rock Albums chart for the year? Evolve by Imagine Dragons.

Artist Charts:

Dance Club Artists 2018 #7: U2

Perhaps one of the more surprising chartings, U2 takes #7 in a ranking of all Dance Club Artists this year. This is due not only to a big campaign of remixes for “Love is Bigger Than Anything in its Way” as mentioned above, but also similar campaigns for “Get Out of Your Own Way” and “Summer of Love,” both of which saw multiple mixes go out for promotion. Both “Love is Bigger Than Anything in its Way” (#1) and “Summer of Love” (#7) reached the top 10 on these charts. At #7 for the year, U2 is behind Dua Lipa, Ariana Grande, Diana Ross, David Guetta, Sabrina Carpenter, and Halsey on this chart. This chart like the Dance Club Songs chart is based on play in dance clubs as reported by a selection of Club DJs.

Top Rock Artists 2018 #16: U2

U2 comes in at #16 in this chart, which is lead by Imagine Dragons at the top spot. U2 fall between The Eagles and Fleetwood Mac on this chart. This chart is based on a combination of factors including radio airplay, sales data, streaming data, Boxscore touring revenue, the Social 50 chart, and ringtone sales.

Top Rock Albums Artists 2018 #21: U2

This chart sees U2 come in at #21, on another chart which is lead by the Imagine Dragons. Here U2 falls between Portugal.The Man and Led Zeppelin on the chart. This chart is based purely on album sales, and is a combination of all album sales by a Rock Artist.

Top Adult Alternative Songs Artists 2018 #5: U2

This chart sees U2 come in at #5, behind Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Leon Bridges, Alice Merton, and Beck.

U2 are also showing up on the Alternative Albums Artist list for 2018, but at this time we are not able to see where they fall in this chart due to an error at the Billboard site. We will update as more information becomes available.

< Next News Entry | Previous News Entry >

u2songs.com was formerly known as u2wanderer.org. Follow us on Twitter | Facebook