Taylor Swift’s ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ Tallies 10th Week at No. 1 on Billboard 200
Written by djfrosty on June 30, 2024
Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department achieves a 10th consecutive and total week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart (dated July 6). With a 10th week atop the list, Swift has now collected three albums with at least 10 weeks at No. 1, as it joins 1989 and Fearless, each with 11 weeks on top.
Swift is just the fifth act with three or more albums to spend 10 or more weeks at No. 1, standing alongside Whitney Houston (three albums, in 1986-93), The Beatles (four, 1964-67), The Kingston Trio (three, 1959-69) and Elvis Presley (four, 1956-61). Swift is the only act with three albums to spend at least 10 weeks at No. 1 this century.
The Tortured Poets Department earned 115,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending June 27 (down 9%), according to Luminate. The album debuted atop the chart dated May 4 and has yet to relinquish the No. 1 slot.
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Swift adds her 79th career week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, extending her record among soloists. (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.)
Also in the top 10 of the latest Billboard 200, Gracie Abrams lands her first top 10-charting set and best week ever by units, as The Secret of Us bows at No. 2. Plus, Peso Pluma captures his second top five-charting effort with the No. 5 arrival of Éxodo.
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 6, 2024-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on July 2. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
Of The Tortured Poets Department’s 115,000 equivalent album units earned, SEA units comprise 87,000 (down 7% — it’s No. 1 on Top Streaming Albums for a 10 th week; its SEA units equal 113.21 million on-demand official streams of the deluxe edition’s 31 songs), album sales comprise 28,000 (down 16%) and TEA units comprise less than 1,000 (up 24%).
As noted above, Swift is the fifth act with three or more albums to spend 10 or more weeks at No. 1. She joins Whitney Houston (her self-titled album with 14 weeks in 1986, Whitney with 11 in 1987 and The Bodyguard soundtrack with 20 weeks in 1992-93); The Beatles (Meet the Beatles! with 11 in 1964, A Hard Day’s Night soundtrack with 14 in 1964, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band with 15 in 1967 and Abbey Road with 11 in 1969-70); The Kingston Trio (The Kingston Trio at Large with 15 in 1959, Sold Out with 12 in 1960 and String Along with 10 in 1960); and Elvis Presley (his self-titled album with 10 in 1956, the Loving You soundtrack with 10 in 1957, the G.I. Blues soundtrack with 15 in 1960-61 and the Blue Hawaii soundtrack with 20 in 1961-62).
As The Tortured Poets Department has spent its first 10 weeks at No. 1, it joins just four other albums that have achieved that same feat: 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); Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album (all 10 of its weeks at No. 1 were from its debut atop the chart, 2021); Whitney Houston’s Whitney (all 11 of its weeks at No. 1 were from its debut atop the chart, 1987); 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.)
The Tortured Poets Department is the first album by a woman to spend 10 weeks in a row at No. 1 since 2012, when Adele’s 21 strung together 10 straight weeks at No. 1 (of its total 24 nonconsecutive weeks atop the list) that January-March.
With 10 weeks at No. 1, The Tortured Poets Department is one week away from tying Swift’s personal record for her most weeks atop the list, as both 1989 and Fearless each notched 11 weeks at No. 1.
In the 21st century, only 11 albums including The Tortured Poets Department have spent at least 10 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Swift has three of them (1989 and Fearless, each with 11, and Poets with 10), Adele (21, with 24, and 25, with 10) and Wallen (One Thing at a Time, 19, and Dangerous: The Double Album, 10) each have two; and while Bad Bunny (Un Verano Sin Ti, 13), Drake (Views, 13), the Frozen soundtrack (13) and SZA (SOS, 10) represent the rest of the No. 1s with 10 or more weeks on top since the turn of the century.
Gracie Abrams scores her highest-charting album, and first top 10, on the Billboard 200 as her second full-length studio set, The Secret of Us, debuts at No. 2 with 89,000 equivalent album units earned, also her best week by units. Of that sum, album sales comprise 50,000 (her best sales week ever — it’s the top-selling album of the week and debuts at No. 1 on Top Album Sales), SEA units comprise 38,000 (equaling 47.57 million on-demand official streams of the set’s 13 songs) and TEA units comprise 1,000.
Abrams previously charted with her debut full-length effort, Good Riddance, which debuted and peaked at No. 52 in March of 2023. The recent Grammy nominee for best new artist made her Billboard Hot 100 songs chart arrival later in 2023, when Noah Kahan’s “Everywhere, Everything,” featuring Abrams, hit No. 79 in December. On the June 22, 2024-dated chart, the new album’s “Close to You” debuted at No. 49.
After Good Riddance debuted, Abrams joined her pal Swift as an opening act for 29 dates of the latter’s stadium-filling The Eras Tour between April and August 2023. She’ll rejoin Swift as an opening act come October, when The Eras Tour returns to the U.S. and Canada, staying on through the trek’s final show in Vancouver on Dec. 8.
During the new album’s release week, Abrams joined Swift onstage in London (June 23) at Wembley Stadium during The Eras Tour for the first live performance of the album’s “Us,” featuring Swift.
The first-week sales of The Secret of Us was supported by the album’s availability across seven vinyl variants (all color variations, two of which were signed and exclusive to Abrams’ webstore, as well as one that was exclusive to Target with an alternative cover). Vinyl sales accounted for 41,000 of the album’s total sales for the week — her best week on vinyl, and the sixth-largest week for a vinyl set in 2024.
Morgan Wallen’s chart-topping One Thing at a Time rises 4-3 on the Billboard 200 with 73,000 equivalent album units earned (up less than 1%) and Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft dips 2-4 with 70,000 (down 17%).
Peso Pluma lands his second top five-charting album as Éxodo enters at No. 5 with 64,000 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum, SEA units comprise essentially all of that sum, equaling 87.51 million on-demand official streams of the album’s 24 songs. (Album sales and TEA units comprise less than 1,000 units combined; the album was available to purchase only as a digital download.) The guest-laden effort includes collaborations with Anitta, Cardi B, DJ Snake, Eslabon Armado, Junior H, Quavo and Rich the Kid, among many others.
The success story of Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess continues to add new chapters, as the album rises 8-6 (a new peak) on the Billboard 200 with 61,000 equivalent album units earned (up 32%), a new single-week high in units for the artist. Of that sum, album sales comprise 15,000 (up 87%, her best sales week yet) and SEA units comprise 46,000 (up 21%, equaling 60.5 million official on-demand streams of the set’s 14 songs — its best streaming week yet).
Wallen’s former leader Dangerous: The Double Album bumps 10-7 on the Billboard 200 with 43,000 equivalent album units earned (down 1%). Ariana Grande’s chart-topping Eternal Sunshine returns to the top 10, vaulting 23-8 with 41,000 units (up 87% thanks largely to sales of a signed CD sold exclusively in Grande’s webstore for a limited time).
Rounding out the top 10 of the new Billboard 200 are Charli XCX’s Brat (holding at No. 9 with nearly 41,000; down 8%) and Shaboozey’s Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going (rising 12-10 with almost 41,000; up 1%).
With Swift, Abrams, Eilish, Chappell Roan, Grande and Charli XCX at Nos. 1, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 9, respectively, there are six albums by women in the top 10 for the first time since the Jan. 27-dated chart. That week, Kali Uchis, Nicki Minaj, SZA and Swift were in the top 10, with Swift holding three titles in the region. Further, this week marks the first time there are at least six different women (or women-led acts) in the top 10 in nearly five years. It last happened on the Sept. 21, 2019-dated chart, with Swift’s Lover (No. 1), Melanie Martinez’s K-12 (No. 3), Lizzo’s Cuz I Love You (No. 6), Eilish’s When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (No. 8), Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! (No. 9) and all-women band The Highwomen’s self-titled album (No. 10).
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.