Hi there!

 

As many of you know, Kworb.net is a place where a lot of people visit to find out the latest iTunes Popularity Numbers. However, there is also a feature within the site that works out a Worldwide iTunes Chart for both songs and albums. Most of you probably already know this, but some of you may not!

 

Worldwide iTunes Song Chart: http://kworb.net/ww/

 

Worldwide iTunes Album Chart: http://kworb.net/aww/

 

In order to calculate these charts, Kworb takes the top 500 songs and albums from each iTunes chart from around the world. Each chart is of equal weight and each song and album in the top 500 is given an allocated number of points. These are then added up to give a Worldwide iTunes chart which tells us the most popular song and album worldwide today!

 

Full details of who the chart is calculated can be found here: http://kworb.net/ww/methodology.html

 

I think this is extremely interesting and useful and it would be good to create some discussion around this chart!

Edited June 17, 201213 yr by Ryan741

Ooh that's brilliant. If it was weighted properly it would be better for sales but this is a great chart anyway and it's an excellent way to see what is becoming a truly global hit rather than just the UK/US that we usually focus on. Thanks for posting Ryan!

Current top 5 singles worldwide:

 

1. 20,004 Carly Rae Jepsen - Call Me Maybe

2. 18,314 Fun. ft. Janelle Monae - We Are Young

3. 18,043 Gotye ft. Kimbra - Somebody That I Used To Know

4. 17,713 Maroon 5 ft. Wiz Khalifa - Payphone

5. 15,234 Pitbull - Back In Time

Ooh that's brilliant. If it was weighted properly it would be better for sales but this is a great chart anyway and it's an excellent way to see what is becoming a truly global hit rather than just the UK/US that we usually focus on. Thanks for posting Ryan!

 

No problem! I'm surprised a thread hadn't been made about it before as I'm sure many chart fans will love it! :D

Call Me Maybe has just managed its 100th day on top of the world iTunes single chart! Looks like its just in time too as PSY has closed in rapidly and is only 600 points away from #1 now which he should have managed by tomorrow!

Is it based on sales? I'm surprised tracks like 'Euphoria' and 'Whistle' didn't break the 100 day run as they have also been massive hits during that time.

I think it might be weighted, hence why Loreen or Whistle didn't break the 100 day run.

How exactly could it being weighted prevent either of those songs breaking the run?

Well perhaps that Euphoria failed to crack the US iTunes much and that's where the majority of the sales come from, hence why?

O I C. Well the weighting is actually equal for every country in the world (which personally I feel is a bit of a flawed system but oh well) so I don't know if that quite explains Euphoria and Whistle failing. The problem with Euphoria is that it made like, zero impact outside of Europe so there's a lot of markets (including the US, yes) that it didn't get points from on there. Whistle took off in different places at different times (again, the US being one of the countries late to the party!) which probably hurt that peak-wise too. This site is quite odd though, it's hard to imagine Call Me Maybe is still the best selling song worldwide when the only country that is still buying it in their droves is France right now (#1 for a 10th week!). I guess it favours songs that are selling SOMEWHAT (!) most everywhere, I feel if it was weighted based on which markets are biggest, it would be more representitive.

...but then you have Euro Digital Tracks charts published by Billboard and they have the UK #1 in the Euro Digital Tracks chart almost every week, whilst a song charting in about 10 other countries (with much smaller sales granted) ends up with a lower peak.

Which isn't an entirely awful situation for me. It depends whether you're more interested in what's most popular or what's selling the most and personally I'm more interested in the latter.

This link is in the original post, but if you haven't seen it - this shows the methodology of how the points are worked out: http://kworb.net/ww/methodology.html

 

This shows that the chart is weighted, and is done so by dividing all of the countries into 4 tiers. In the 1st tier there is the US, the UK, Germany and France and their charts contribute more points to the chart. As you go down the tiers, they of course contribute less points to the chart. You can see how the individual scores for each tier and each position in that link above, as well as which countries in each tier!

 

Hope that helps! :D

Oh how weird. I swear I remember reading it was equally weighted. Perhaps it was in the past and they changed the formula? The tier system is nice, although I don't entirely agree with how those tiers are right now. I mean, the US #1 is selling in the region of 300k (if not more) right now while the current French #1 is barely scraping 9k. Those two countries should not be in the one tier.

Edited September 14, 201212 yr by Umi

As we thought, PSY has just gone up to #1 ending Carly's 100-day reign at the top! :( Interestingly, Play Hard is now a few places ahead of She Wolf at #8 - it looks like it is outperforming expectations worldwide!

I think Kworb dosen't combine all versions, maybe that's why Playhard is ahead of She Wolf.

Oh how weird. I swear I remember reading it was equally weighted. Perhaps it was in the past and they changed the formula? The tier system is nice, although I don't entirely agree with how those tiers are right now. I mean, the US #1 is selling in the region of 300k (if not more) right now while the current French #1 is barely scraping 9k. Those two countries should not be in the one tier.

true. Especially in those Asian countries, #1 song might never sell more than 50 in a week.

On Japan the #1 sells around 4-5k a week.

On Japan the #1 sells around 4-5k a week.

 

Really? I though Japan had HUGE sales.

Is that overall or just iTunes though? Doesn't iTunes have a very small share in Asia?