Miley’s Bass Persuades debuts at No. 1, her first chart-topping album since 2013
Miley Cyrus, now billed simply as Miley, has her first No. 1 album in the United States since 2013. Bass Persuades debuts at the top of the Billboard 200 dated 3 October 2026, in one of the closest races of the year. Only about 1,000 units separated the top three. Below we look at where the numbers came from, how this debut compares with her last album, and what to watch next week.
By Editorial Team
What we know
- The result: Bass Persuades earned 61,000 equivalent album units in the US in the week ending 24 September, according to data firm Luminate, as reported by Billboard.
- Her record: it is her sixth No. 1 and her 16th top 10 album. Billboard counts her releases as Miley and as Miley Cyrus, plus her soundtracks as the Disney character Hannah Montana. Her last No. 1 was Bangerz in October 2013.
- The rollout: she announced the album on 1 September and released the title track on 3 September. It debuted at No. 35 on the Billboard Hot 100, her 24th top 40 hit. The full album followed on 18 September.
- The full chart was due on Billboard’s website on Tuesday 29 September.
How close was it?
Very close. Billboard’s figures for the top five:
| Rank | Album | Artist | Units |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bass Persuades | Miley | 61,000 (new) |
| 2 | Dandelion | Ella Langley | nearly 61,000 |
| 3 | That’s Just Me | Riley Green | 60,000 (new) |
| 4 | I’m the Problem | Morgan Wallen | 58,000 |
| 5 | you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love | Olivia Rodrigo | 55,000 |
Billboard did not give exact totals for the top two. It said only that Dandelion earned “nearly 61,000” units, so the margin at the top was very small.
Where the units came from
This was a sales-driven debut. According to Billboard, 47,000 of the 61,000 units were album sales, about 77% of the total, and that was enough to top the Top Album Sales chart too. Streaming added 14,000 units, from 14.22 million on-demand streams. Billboard says sales were boosted by a large range of formats: 16 vinyl versions, nine CD versions, six download editions and a cassette. Some of these included bonus tracks.
Riley Green’s album shows the opposite pattern. Of his 60,000 units, 29,000 were sales and 30,000 came from streaming, which is 30.89 million on-demand streams. That is more than twice as many streams as Bass Persuades drew.
How it compares with her last album
Her previous studio album, Something Beautiful, debuted at No. 4 in June 2025 with 44,000 units, according to Billboard’s report at the time. That total was 27,000 sales and 17,000 streaming units, from 22.18 million streams.
Side by side, Bass Persuades sold about 20,000 more copies in its first week but drew roughly 8 million fewer streams. One caution: streaming units from the two weeks are not directly comparable. Billboard’s method notes show that in June 2025, one album unit equalled 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid streams. On the current chart it equals 2,500 ad-supported or 1,000 paid streams. The same number of streams now produces more units, so the sales figures are the cleaner comparison.
A long wait between No. 1s
Billboard says Miley is the third act in 2026 to wait at least ten years between No. 1 albums. Bruno Mars returned with The Romantic in March, 13 years after Unorthodox Jukebox. A$AP Rocky topped the chart in January with Don’t Be Dumb, about ten and a half years after At.Long.Last.A$AP.
In an announcement quoted by Variety, she explained the album’s title: “Music takes hold of us… It is powerful, vulnerable, sweet and strong. Heart full, heartache, every part of life in between. That’s what the title means to me.”
Elsewhere on the charts
- Ella Langley keeps extending her Hot 100 record. “Choosin’ Texas” spends a 24th week at No. 1, Billboard reports. That adds to the all-time record it took outright last week. Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” is next on the list with 22 weeks. The song also has a record 19th week atop Digital Song Sales, passing BTS’s “Butter” and “Dynamite”.
- beabadoobee has a strong week on both sides of the Atlantic. Pylon enters the Billboard 200 at No. 7 with 35,000 units, her first US top 10. It also went straight to No. 1 on the UK’s Official Albums Chart, her second UK chart-topper.
- Miley did less well in the UK. The Official Charts Company says Bass Persuades entered its albums chart at No. 13.
What happens next
- Week two: most of the debut came from sales, so next week’s chart will show how much of that support the album keeps once the first-week buying is over.
- Live dates: Variety reports she will play two nights at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on 16 and 18 October, with Model/Actriz, who features on the album, as special guest.
- A crowded chart next week: the next tracking week began on Friday 25 September, the day Taylor Swift released The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore, an expanded edition with four new songs. That was two days before her record-breaking night at the 2026 MTV VMAs.
For more chart news, see Music and International Entertainment.
Sources
- Billboard: Miley earns first Billboard 200 No. 1 in more than a decade
- Billboard (June 2025): Something Beautiful debuts at No. 4
- Billboard: Choosin’ Texas extends Hot 100 record
- Variety: Miley Cyrus scores first No. 1 in over a decade
- Rolling Stone: Miley hits No. 1 with Bass Persuades
- Official Charts Company: beabadoobee’s Pylon is UK No. 1
- ABC News: Taylor Swift and The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore
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