YouTube is returning to Billboard‘s US charts.
The move follows a change by Billboard to how it weights paid subscription streams against ad-supported streams – the issue that led YouTube to withdraw its data from the charts in January.
Billboard announced the change on Monday (November 9), and YouTube confirmed its return later the same day.
Billboard is narrowing the ratio between paid subscription streams and ad-supported streams from 1:2.5 to 1:1.5.
Under the new formula, 1,000 paid subscription streams or 1,500 ad-supported streams will equal one album consumption unit on the Billboard 200.
The current formula requires 2,500 ad-supported streams to equal one album unit, against 1,000 paid subscription streams.
The new ratio takes effect on the Billboard 200 and its genre album charts dated January 16, 2027, which will reflect data from January 1–7.
Billboard said the change follows its annual review, with Luminate, of the streaming revenue data that informs the methodology for the Billboard 200, the Hot 100, and other album and song charts.
That analysis “leads to a new weighting ratio for paid and ad-supported streaming on Billboard’s album and song consumption charts”, according to Billboard.
“The updated ratios are informed by an analysis of revenue from paid and ad-supported streaming,” Billboard wrote, adding that it aims to keep its charts “aligned with the evolving economics of music consumption”.
Lyor Cohen, YouTube’s Global Head of Music, confirmed YouTube’s return in an update added to the top of the blog post in which he had announced its exit from the charts in December 2025.
“We are returning to the Billboard charts starting in 2027,” wrote Cohen. “Billboard’s new methodology better reflects how fans engage with music today across both subscription and ad-supported services.”
YouTube’s departure from the charts followed the previous change to Billboard‘s formula, as MBW reported in December 2025.
On December 16, 2025, Billboard narrowed the Billboard 200 ratio from 1:3 (1,250 paid streams or 3,750 ad-supported streams per album unit) to the current 1:2.5.
The next day, Cohen said that YouTube would stop delivering its data to Billboard after January 16, 2026.
“Billboard uses an outdated formula that weights subscription-supported streams higher than ad-supported,” Cohen wrote at the time. “This doesn’t reflect how fans engage with music today and ignores the massive engagement from fans who don’t have a subscription.”
In the same post, Cohen wrote that YouTube was “committed to achieving equitable representation across the charts and hopefully can work with Billboard to return to theirs”.
YouTube’s data has been absent from Billboard’s charts since the charts dated January 31 this year, according to Billboard.
In its report on YouTube’s return, Billboard restated the rationale it gave when it first weighted paid streams above ad-supported streams.
“It is Billboard’s belief that assigning values to the levels of consumer engagement and access – along with the compensation derived from those options – better reflects the varied user activity occurring on these services,” Billboard wrote at the time.
Before 2018, when Billboard first introduced tiered streaming values, streams from paid and ad-supported services counted equally on its charts.
YouTube data was first included in the Billboard Hot 100 in 2013, and was added to the Billboard 200 in January 2020.
When that Billboard 200 change was announced in 2019, Cohen called it a “very important moment in making the chart a more accurate representation of what people are listening to”.
YouTube said in October 2025 that it had paid more than $8 billion to the music industry in the 12 months from July 2024 to June 2025, covering revenue from both ads and subscriptions.
“$8 billion payout is a testament to the fact that the twin engine of ads and subscriptions is firing on all cylinders,” Cohen said at the time.
Alphabet disclosed on October 28 that YouTube Music and Premium had surpassed 150 million subscribers globally, including trials.
That was up from the 125 million subscribers (including trials) that YouTube announced in March 2025.Music Business Worldwide