Taylor Swift Hits Career-Best 12th Week at No. 1 on Billboard 200 With ‘Tortured Poets Department’

Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department captures a 12th consecutive and total week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 (dated July 20) — beating 1989 and Fearless (each with 11 weeks at No. 1) as her longest-leading No. 1 album.

The Tortured Poets Department earned 163,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending July 11 (up 43% — its first gain in seven weeks), according to Luminate. The album debuted atop the chart dated May 4 and has yet to yield the No. 1 slot.

The Tortured Poets Department surpasses Whitney Houston’s 1987 album Whitney to become the only album by a woman to spend its first 12 weeks at No. 1. The latter spent all 11 of its weeks atop the list from its debut frame (June 27, 1987-dated chart).

Only two other albums have spent at least their first 12 weeks at No. 1: Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time (first 12 weeks at No. 1, of its total 19 weeks at No. 1 in 2023-24) and Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life (first 13 weeks at No. 1, of its total 14 weeks at No. 1 in 1976). (For context, today it’s common for albums to debut at No. 1. However, before 1991, when the Billboard 200 began utilizing Luminate’s electronically monitored tracking information, only six albums debuted at No. 1, including Whitney and Songs in the Key of Life.)

Also in the top 10 of the latest Billboard 200 chart, Zach Bryan’s The Great American Bar Scene soars 17-2 in its first full tracking week. The previous week’s list captured the tracking week of June 28-July 4, and Bryan’s album was released on Thursday, July 4. (Albums are typically released on Friday each week, which is the first day of the chart’s tracking week.)

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new July 20, 2024-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on July 16. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.

Prior to Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department, the last album by a woman to spend at least 12 total weeks at No. 1 was Adele’s 21, which earned 24 nonconsecutive weeks on top in 2011-12. (Overall, the last album to spend at least 12 total weeks at No. 1 was Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time, which logged 19 total weeks at No. 1 in 2023-24, of which its first 12 were consecutive from its debut week.)

The last album by a woman with at least 12 consecutive weeks at No. 1 was the Whitney Houston-led soundtrack to The Bodyguard, which strung together 13 straight weeks at No. 1 (of its total 20 nonconsecutive weeks atop the list) from December 1992 to March 1993.

Swift adds her 81st career week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, extending her record among soloists. (Elvis Presley has the second-most among soloists, with 67.) The total encompasses her 14 No. 1 albums. (She’s tied with Jay-Z for the most No. 1s among soloists.)

Of The Tortured Poets Department’s 163,000 units earned in the week ending July 11, album sales comprise 90,000 (up 154%, making it the top-selling album of the week, and No. 1 on Top Album Sales for a sixth non-consecutive week), SEA units comprise 72,000 (down 7%, equaling 94.83 million on-demand official streams of the deluxe album’s 31 songs; it falls 1-2 on the Top Streaming Albums chart after 11 weeks in a row at No. 1) and TEA units comprise 1,000 (up 7%).

Of Swift’s overall album sales for the week, CD sales comprise 67,000 (up 127%), digital album download sales comprise 19,000 (up 1,266%) and vinyl sales comprise 4,000 (down 10%).

The Tortured Poets Department’s overall weekly increase was bolstered in part by sales generated from Swift’s official webstore, which restocked seven earlier-released CD variants of the album (including a signed edition). The restocked items were available to purchase for a few hours on Sunday, June 7, and shipped shortly afterwards. In addition, Swift released three new digital album download variants of the album on Thursday, July 11, sold exclusively in her webstore for $4.99 each, and were only available to purchase that day. Each contained the original standard 16-song album tracklist, along with one bonus live acoustic track, recorded during her The Eras Tour stop in Stockholm (“Guilty as Sin?,” “How Did It End?” or “Peter”).

The Tortured Poets Department also got a boost in the latest chart’s tracking week thanks to activity generated by the July 8 release of two versions of the album’s lead single, the Post Malone-featuring “Fortnight,” to streaming services and digital retailers: a Cults remix and an acoustic rendition. (The latter was previously available only as a bonus track on a limited-edition CD version of Poets.)

Zach Bryan’s The Great American Bar Scene rises 17-2 in its second week on the Billboard 200, following its first full tracking week of activity. The set earned 137,000 equivalent album units in the week ending July 11 (up 363% from its first day). The previous week’s list captured the tracking week of June 28-July 4, and Bryan’s album was released on Thursday, July 4. The set premiered on the previous week’s list with 32,000 units from first day of release. (Albums are typically released on Friday each week, which is the first day of the chart’s tracking week.)

Of The Great American Bar Scene’s second chart-week units, SEA units comprise 127,500 (up 390%, equaling 163.87 million on-demand official streams of the set’s 19 tracks; it jumps 18-1 on Top Streaming Albums), album sales comprise 8,500 (up 66%, it was only available to purchase as a digital download album) and TEA units comprise 1,000 (up 113%). The album will be released on CD and vinyl on Oct. 11.

The album was preceded by a pair of Billboard Hot 100-charting songs: “Pink Skies” (peaking at No. 6 in June) and “Purple Gas,” with Noeline Hofmann (No. 70).

The Great American Bar Scene marks the fourth top 10-charting effort for Bryan on the Billboard 200, following Boys of Faith (No. 8, October 2023) his-self titled set (No. 1, two weeks, September 2023) and American Heartbreak (No. 5, June 2022).

Morgan Wallen’s former leader One Thing at a Time falls 2-3 with 69,000 equivalent album units earned (down 6%); Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft is a non-mover at No. 4 with 58,000 (down 8%); and Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess is stationary at No. 5 with 54,000 (down 10%).

Wallen’s chart-topping Dangerous: The Double Album holds at No. 6 (40,000; down 8%); Noah Kahan’s Stick Season rises 9-7 (38,000; down 3%); Shaboozey’s Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going is a non-mover at No. 8 (36,000; down 10%); and Megan Thee Stallion’s Megan falls 3-9 in its second week (32,000; down 50%).

Closing out the top 10 is a second Zach Bryan title, as his self-titled No. 1 rises 12-10 with nearly 32,000 equivalent album units (down 12%). It’s the second time Bryan has placed two titles in the top 10. He first did it on the Oct. 7, 2023-dated chart, when his self-titled set fell 3-5 in its fifth week, while his Boys of Faith project bowed at No. 8.

Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.

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Written by Mr. Nimbus