How many number-one singles has Drake had?
All told, Drake has released 189 singles throughout his career: a wild number, albeit 106 of those are songs in which he was a featured artist on someone else’s work.
Still, that’s a lot of music. But how many of the songs were actually chart-toppers?
Drake is literally one of the best-selling artists in pop history, having moved around 170 million records around the world. That doesn’t happen without hitting number one every now and then—or, as the case may be, on 13 occasions. That’s how many number ones he’s had on the Billboard Hot 100, the industry standard singles chart in the United States. Looking at the Hot Rap Songs and the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts, he’s been at number one even more times than that. In the case of both those charts, he’s released 30 singles to hit number one.
Topping the Billboard Hot 100 still represents the pinnacle of pop music commercial achievement, but, looking further afield, Drake has obviously been extremely successful in other countries, too. He’s achieved number ones all over the place, but, for the purposes of this piece, we’ll stick to his American successes. According to Billboard’s own statistics, he’s had 13 number ones, with three of those being other people’s songs that he featured on.
His collaborations with Rihanna have proven to be especially popular, with ‘Work’ hitting number one in 2016 and staying there for nine weeks. ‘What’s My Name?’ enjoyed a week-long spell at number one in 2010, which is certainly a more modest run that ‘Work’ would ultimately achieve, but it nonetheless marked Drake’s first ever number one song and represented a sign of things to come. He also achieved a number one as a featured artist on Future’s track ‘Wait For U,’ upon which Tems also appeared.
As for his own songs, ‘One Dance’ in 2016 became Drake’s first ever number one single in America—and in 14 other countries, for that matter. It sat on top of the Billboard chart for ten weeks, albeit those weeks weren’t always consecutive. But, along with the success of Rihanna’s ‘Work’ that same year, 2016 proved to be an especially lucrative one for Drake’s career.
The following year was quiet on the chart-topping front, but 2018 was huge for Drake. His two most successful singles came out that year, with ‘In My Feelings’ holding the number one spot for ten weeks and ‘God’s Plan’ going one better and achieving 11 weeks at the top. ‘Nice For What’ also spent eight weeks at the top of the Hot 100, making it his fifth most successful single. Each of those three songs hit number one in a bunch of other countries, too, making 2018 an especially good year for his chart performances.
In 2020 only ‘Toosie Slide’ reached number one for a week, with the following year being only slightly more impressive. ‘What’s Next’ and ‘Way 2 Sexy’ each spent a week at the top in 2021, while 2022 saw ‘Jimmy Cooks’ climb up there, too. The year after that saw ‘First Person Shooter’ and ‘Slime You Out’ reach number one, but that, frankly, has been that for a little while now. Neither 2024 nor ’25 so far has seen Drake hit number one in America, though he’s gotten close. This year ‘What Did I Miss?’ and Nokia reached number two, but, by his own lofty commercial standards, that’s not quite good enough. Are his greatest successes now behind him?