Zach Top Surges on Charts, Sets Rodeo Record, Promises New Album
Neotraditionalist Zach Top is the biggest new thing in country music. And he’s only getting bigger.
Albums do one of two things in the charts. They either go up or down. If they go down, they fall from their debut position, usually never to return to the prominence of their debut week. And if they keep going up, they tend to stick at the very top of the charts for a long time, often for years. That is the current trajectory for Zach Top’s 2024 album Cold Beer & Country Music.
The album has been doing well ever since its debut on April 5th, 2024. But here in 2025, it’s done better week over week, breaking into the Top 5 on the country charts, surpassing Zach Bryan’s recent albums, and now competing with Morgan Wallen, Post Malone, and Jelly Roll for chart supremacy. Top’s also broke into the Top 40 in the Billboard 200, meaning yes, he’s now a Top 40 all-genre artist.
Check out the sales numbers below for Cold Beer & Country Music for the first weeks of 2025, and notice how they’re rising week to week. If they continue on this trend, he’s likely to be in the Top 3 in country music soon.
Week 9 – 18,375 Albums – 4.6% Country #5 All #33
Week 8 – 17,572 Albums – 0.7% Country #6 All #36
Week 7 – 17,447 Albums – 3.5% Country #6 All #38
Week 6 – 16,849 Albums – 1.2% Country #10 All #49
Week 5 – 16,652 Albums – 8.6% Country #11 All #54
Week 3 – 15,526 Albums – 4.8-% Country #9 All #48
Week 2 – 16,309 Albums – 8.7% Country #8 All #45
Week 1 – 15,006 Albums – Country #10 All #51
This same popularity has translated into the live space for the reigning Saving Country Music Artist of the Year. Not only is he selling out any venue he posts on his calendar immediately, he recently set the 2025 attendance record at Rodeo Houston by selling 70,865 tickets, and on a Tuesday night no less (3-11). He beat out Reba McEntire and Brad Paisley among others to achieve that feat before Journey finally topped Zach on Friday (72,109).
And for those hoping for more where that came from, Zach Top might deliver sooner than later. During a Spotify Q&A at Rodeo Houston, Top shared, “I just went in and tracked a few more songs to finish out the second record. So we got that finished up and are getting it mixed right now. It’ll come out at some point in the summer. I’m not sure exactly when yet, but there will be a new record coming this summer.”
A new album from Zach Top might shoot straight to #1, and might knock Cold Beer & Country Music out of the way to get there. Meanwhile Top is also doing well on radio with his viral hit “I Never Lie” currently sitting at #7 on the Mediabase chart, and is likely to get to #1 before summer.
We’ve witnessed major chart surges by non-radio country artists over the last many years, including multiple albums from Zach Bryan and Purgatory by Tyler Childers. But Zach Top is the first purely country artist to accomplish this, and it’s probably a sure bet he’s breaking down barriers for other throwback country performers in the process.
March 18, 2025 @ 8:45 am
One of our Saviors!!! An absolute joy to watch his success.
March 18, 2025 @ 8:46 am
No. 7 in country airplay in the latest update from MediaBase, too. Not as hot at radio as (ugh) Locash, Dylan Scott, Cole Swindell and Jason Aldean, at least in “bullet” points, but mighty impressive for a traditional-sounding song. I wonder what kind of “push week” it will get from the label. All country airplay No. 1s are, by nature, synthetic, as the labels take turns getting maximum airplay to avoid having labelmates vying for No. 1 the same week, and radio does what the labels want (and pay?) it to do. Still, it would be nice to hear this song getting a week or two of top-of-the-hour, 12 times a day airplay on the nation’s mainstream stations.
March 18, 2025 @ 2:44 pm
Although I’ve stopped paying any attention to country radio its still disappointing to hear Locash, Dylan Scott, and Cole Swindell are still around.
March 18, 2025 @ 11:00 am
Happy for his success. I noticed last year his rising popularity on tik tok, “I Never Lie” was mashed up with “Hollaback Girl” and a ton of people used the sound.
March 18, 2025 @ 5:26 pm
Seeing Zach, Larry Fleet & Jon Pardi in concert tonight in Melbourne. Wack’o.
March 21, 2025 @ 7:10 am
How was Pardi? His new single is a regression to bro country for him, and I’ve seen stories saying he’s leaning more toward rock on his upcoming album.
March 21, 2025 @ 1:39 pm
How good it was having three great atists on the one show, reminisent of the Highwaymen. Zach was first up, excellent but his slot needed to be longer, he really was great, a few more songs would have been wonderful. Larry Fleet was interesting and quite good also. Jon Pardi was OK. his background video’s and stage antics were somewhat offputting However in all fairness the sound guy had it all wrong, the bass killed off everything, it went a long way to putting a dampener on what could have been a much greater show. In a nut shell, my group enjoyed it even though we left 2/3rds through Jon Pardi. Pete
March 19, 2025 @ 7:38 am
When I listened to ZT’s album last spring – only learned of from SCM – I know I liked it. But my ‘go big’ litmus test is does my wife or my 13 year old daughter like it? If they do I know the music is destined to spread. Zach Bryan was a case in point a few years back – we took family trip to his concert last summer. So last spring both wife and daughter let me play Use Me in the car as much as I wanted – they liked it too. Bingo, ZT is on a rocket ship. His music just has that big appeal. To me his songs are quality and authentic. Good to see a good one become a big winner. Here’s to Hope that he can produce more music I want to hear when all is going super well, new folks are whispering in his ear and he’s not bringing it starving-hard everyday trying to make it.
March 19, 2025 @ 8:12 am
Love Zack! Hope this gives him some awards & attaboys. Maybe his success will prompt the industry to seek out their own ZT type artists.Hope he forever stays away from Jay Joyce.
March 19, 2025 @ 10:00 pm
I look forward to Zach becoming our next George Strait if he can find songs the way George did. He needs to ditch his mustache and trim his hair to a business cut. Start wearing solid color shirts with full button down collars with medium starch and heavy starched wrangler jeans. Wear a different hat to each event and learn to speak the cadence of George.
March 21, 2025 @ 7:13 am
Jesus lol.
March 20, 2025 @ 5:08 pm
I wish a fellar would cover Over You.