Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department briefly left the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 chart, but its reign is far from over. It returned to the top spot for its 13th non-consecutive week, extending its run as the longest-leading No. 1 album of Swift’s career.
The lack of competition helped Tortured Poets climb to the top during its latest week on the chart, with 71,000 equivalent album units earned. This is the smallest weekly sum for a No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart since Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time led the way back in March with 68,000 units.
Tortured Poets also happens to be the first album to spend at least 13 weeks at No. 1 since One Thing at a Time, which dominated the Billboard 200 chart for 19 non-consecutive weeks. It’s also the first album by a female artist to spend at least 13 weeks on top since Adele’s 21 earned 24 non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 in 2011-12.
The Tortured Poets Department is the longest-leading chart-topper in Swift’s career, and it made history as the first album by a female artist to spend its first 12 weeks atop the Billboard 200. It also helped Swift extend her record for most weeks at No. 1 for a soloist to 82, while the all-time record is held by The Beatles with 132 weeks.
