The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam was first discussed before Mahārāja Parīkṣit. King Parīkṣit, the emperor of this planet, he was cursed by a brāhmin to die within seven days. He was very wrongly cursed, but still, Parīkṣit Mahārāja tolerated. He could counteract such curse, but he did not do it. He took this opportunity of retiring from active life and prepare for death.
So he had only seven days to die. And because he was king, all the great sages and kings in all parts of the world, they came to see him, and the problem was what to do at the time of death. So many people suggested many things—not ordinary people; many great sages, brāhmins—"Mahārāja you do this. You do that." Later on it was suggested, on arrival of Śukadeva Gosvāmī in that meeting . . . so all the sages decided that, "Śukadeva Gosvāmī has recently learned from his father, Vyāsadeva, about Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam."
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the last contribution of Vyāsadeva. Vyāsadeva is the original compiler of all Vedic literature. So he wrote so many books—all the Vedas, four Vedas, 108 Upaniṣads, eighteen Purāṇas, Mahābhārata. Rāmāyaṇa was compiled before, by Vālmīki. And in Mahābhārata there are 100,000 verses. Similarly, all these books, hundreds and thousands of verses. And the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam contains eighteen thousand verses. So in this way, Vyāsadeva compiled all these books for benefit of the people in this age of Kali.