High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Billboard Hot 100 is a chart that ranks the best-performing singles of the United States. Published by Billboard magazine, the data are compiled by Nielsen SoundScan based collectively on each single`s weekly physical sales and airplay. In 2002, there were seven singles that topped the chart, the lowest number of singles to top the chart in a single year ever (if the two songs which peaked in 2001 are included, 2002 would have the second lowest number of chart-topping singles in a year, behind 2005). Although nine singles reached number one in fifty-two issues of the magazine in the calendar year, two songs began their peak position in 2001 and are thus excluded.