# List of Billboard 200 number-one albums of 1983

The Billboard 200, published in Billboard magazine, is a weekly chart that ranks the highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States. In 1983, the name of the chart was Top LPs & Tape. Before Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales in 1991, Billboard estimated sales from a representative sampling of record stores nationwide, using telephone, fax or messenger service. Data were based on rankings made by the record stores of the best-selling records, not on actual sales figures.
There were six number-one albums on this chart in 1983, including the debut album of the Australian band Men at Work, Business as Usual, which spent the last seven weeks of 1982 and the first eight weeks of 1983 at number one, and was certified quadruple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 1984. Thriller, the sixth studio album by recording artist Michael Jackson, was released in November 1982. It peaked at number one for twenty-two non-consecutive weeks in 1983 with another fifteen consecutive weeks at the top into the following year, and seven songs from the album became top ten singles between late 1982 and early 1984. Two of them: "Billie Jean" and "Beat It", reached the top position of the Billboard Hot 100. Thriller won eight Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year at the 26th Grammy Awards, and was the best-selling album of 1983 with more than fifteen million copies sold. In 2008, twenty-five years after its release, the record was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and a few weeks later, it was among twenty-five recordings preserved by the Library of Congress to the National Recording Registry as "culturally significant".
Flashdance, the soundtrack to the 1983 musical and romance film of the same name, peaked at number one for two weeks and won the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture. The two singles released from the album, "Flashdance... What a Feeling" by Irene Cara, and "Maniac" by Michael Sembello, reached the top of the singles chart in 1983. The New York Times considered the British band The Police to be the year's most influential rock band. Australian, British, and American bands copied the white-reggae formula of their (The Police's) earlier successes. The group released their fifth and final studio album, Synchronicity, in 1983. The album, a varied accomplished blend of rock, funk, and third-world rhythms, stayed at number one for seventeen weeks and was certified four times platinum by the RIAA in 1984. Metal Health, the third album by heavy metal band Quiet Riot, peaked at number one for one week, becoming the first heavy metal record to reach the top of the Billboard 200. Singer-songwriter Lionel Richie released his second album Can't Slow Down in 1983, which spent three weeks at the top and won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year at the 27th Grammy Awards.

## Chart history

Key :
| † | Indicates best performing album of 1983 |
| Issue date | Album | Artist(s) | Label |
| January 1 | Business as Usual | Men at Work | Columbia |
| January 8 | Business as Usual | Men at Work | Columbia |
| January 15 | Business as Usual | Men at Work | Columbia |
| January 22 | Business as Usual | Men at Work | Columbia |
| January 29 | Business as Usual | Men at Work | Columbia |
| February 5 | Business as Usual | Men at Work | Columbia |
| February 12 | Business as Usual | Men at Work | Columbia |
| February 19 | Business as Usual | Men at Work | Columbia |
| February 26 | Thriller † | Michael Jackson | Epic |
| March 5 | Thriller † | Michael Jackson | Epic |
| March 12 | Thriller † | Michael Jackson | Epic |
| March 19 | Thriller † | Michael Jackson | Epic |
| March 26 | Thriller † | Michael Jackson | Epic |
| April 2 | Thriller † | Michael Jackson | Epic |
| April 9 | Thriller † | Michael Jackson | Epic |
| April 16 | Thriller † | Michael Jackson | Epic |
| April 23 | Thriller † | Michael Jackson | Epic |
| April 30 | Thriller † | Michael Jackson | Epic |
| May 7 | Thriller † | Michael Jackson | Epic |
| May 14 | Thriller † | Michael Jackson | Epic |
| May 21 | Thriller † | Michael Jackson | Epic |
| May 28 | Thriller † | Michael Jackson | Epic |
| June 4 | Thriller † | Michael Jackson | Epic |
| June 11 | Thriller † | Michael Jackson | Epic |
| June 18 | Thriller † | Michael Jackson | Epic |
| June 25 | Flashdance | Soundtrack | Casablanca |
| July 2 | Flashdance | Soundtrack | Casablanca |
| July 9 | Thriller † | Michael Jackson | Epic |
| July 16 | Thriller † | Michael Jackson | Epic |
| July 23 | Synchronicity | The Police | A&M |
| July 30 | Synchronicity | The Police | A&M |
| August 6 | Synchronicity | The Police | A&M |
| August 13 | Synchronicity | The Police | A&M |
| August 20 | Synchronicity | The Police | A&M |
| August 27 | Synchronicity | The Police | A&M |
| September 3 | Synchronicity | The Police | A&M |
| September 10 | Thriller † | Michael Jackson | Epic |
| September 17 | Synchronicity | The Police | A&M |
| September 24 | Synchronicity | The Police | A&M |
| October 1 | Synchronicity | The Police | A&M |
| October 8 | Synchronicity | The Police | A&M |
| October 15 | Synchronicity | The Police | A&M |
| October 22 | Synchronicity | The Police | A&M |
| October 29 | Synchronicity | The Police | A&M |
| November 5 | Synchronicity | The Police | A&M |
| November 12 | Synchronicity | The Police | A&M |
| November 19 | Synchronicity | The Police | A&M |
| November 26 | Metal Health | Quiet Riot | Pasha |
| December 3 | Can't Slow Down | Lionel Richie | Motown |
| December 10 | Can't Slow Down | Lionel Richie | Motown |
| December 17 | Can't Slow Down | Lionel Richie | Motown |
| December 24 | Thriller † | Michael Jackson | Epic |
| December 31 | Thriller † | Michael Jackson | Epic |