Thriller climbs to No. 2, its best Billboard 200 rank since 1984

Nineteen thousand people bought Thriller on vinyl in one week, giving Michael Jackson's 1982 album its biggest vinyl sales total since electronic tracking began in 1991.

The album jumped from No. 13 to No. 2 on the Billboard 200 dated Nov. 14, Billboard reported, its highest position since spring 1984. It earned 55,000 equivalent album units in the Oct. 30 through Nov. 5 tracking week, up 89% from the week before. Four decades later, Halloween remains a very effective marketing department for a record named Thriller.

The numbers: Streaming made up 32,000 of those units, fueled by 34.34 million on-demand audio and video streams of songs from the album. Sales added another 22,000 units, up 335%, while track purchases accounted for 1,000. The album also rose from No. 14 to No. 5 on Billboard's Top Streaming Albums chart and from No. 14 to No. 3 on its Top Album Sales chart.

The physical part: Billboard reported that the surge coincided with Halloween listening for the title track and new editions released Oct. 30: three vinyl variants, including colored and liquid-filled versions, plus a cassette. Vinyl accounted for nearly all of the album's sales that week. Its 22,000 total sales were the highest weekly figure for the album in nearly four years.

Why it matters: Thriller spent 37 weeks at No. 1 in 1983 and 1984, still the longest run at the top for an album by a solo artist. Only the West Side Story soundtrack spent longer at No. 1, with 54 weeks in 1962 and 1963. Jackson's last No. 2 album was the posthumous Xscape in 2014.

The full Billboard 200 chart dated Nov. 14 is scheduled to be published Nov. 10, with Thriller once again sitting near the part of the chart usually reserved for new releases.