Miley Cyrus’ ‘Flowers’ spends another week atop the global album chart; how has it’s success compared to SZA?

Miley Cyrus is indeed getting her flowers with her return to the music front, as her single “Flowers” has retained its top spot on the Billboard Global 200 chart for an eleventh consecutive week. Not even the likes of Jimin nor The Weeknd and Ariana Grande have managed to topple MIley, whose album “Endless Summer Vacation” marked her second number one album in the United Kingdom, after the success of her 2017 album “Bangerz.”

But how do those numbers add up compared to another album release earlier in the year that reigned supreme at the top of the Billboard album charts? While Miley Cyrus’ latest effort is dominating the global chart in terms of single success, lest we forget that earlier in the year SZA was dominating the album chart with the release of her album “SOS,” which broke records as the most streaming R&B album in a week. 

Cyrus, however, has had to contend with “Endless Summer Vacation” only landing in the third spot upon its release, compared to the number one spot “SOS '' entered upon its release in early December 2022. So who has had the biggest success as we head into the middle of 2023 between the pair, both in terms of their musical releases and the all-important shift in social media followers? 

“SOS” boasted upon the first week of it’s release that it had 318,000 album-unit equivalents sold, and went on to achieve gold album in the United States after a number of days; the RIAA has stated that 500,000 is the figure artists need in order to achieve that gold record status. In contrast, Miley Cyrus’ effort in its first week sold 119,000 album-equivalent units, which if our maths is correct is 199,000 units less than the R&B prodigy. 

Miley Cyrus’ juggernaut first single from her new album, “Flowers,” which may-or-may-not be about former love Liam Hemsworth, had gone platinum in the United Kingdom already since its release, pulling in over 600,000 units sold in the UK alone. At the same time, SZA’s first single from her album, “Good Days” has also passed that 600,000 unit mark in the United Kingdom also, earning platinum sales status in the process. 

But while a search on the RIAA’s website to find out the current sales status of both performers regarding their singles, one name turned up while the other was absent; as it stands, the RIAA has either failed to add Miley Cyrus’ latest single achievement to their archives, or she has not hit that sweet spot in the United States regarding gold or platinum status for “Flowers,” which is odd.

However, searching SZA’s name in the RIAA database and sure enough, “Good Days” is currently 5x Multi-Platinum as of April 7 2023. 

“But what about social media followings” I hear you ask? Well, thanks to Social Blade, we can tell you that on Twitter, Miley is still leaps and bounds ahead of SZA regarding her overall follower count (46,835,677 as opposed to SZA’s 7,530,100), but when we look at the daily averages, that tells somewhat of a different story.

Miley is averaging 3,458 new followers a day on Twitter, compared to SZA now averaging 3,955 daily followers. 

So while Miley Cyrus has indeed gotten her flowers after her successful return to music, it would appear that, until the RIAA update their sales records for her, that SZA can still claim to be the more successful of the two in terms of 2023 - no one is doubting Miley’s overall success throughout her years as a performer before stans come at us here at Peopleworld.