“I wasn’t about to make the same album twice,” Taylor Swift once mused of the process of crafting LPs. “I wanted to challenge myself. “I tend to write for the entire two-year process,” Swift said ahead of the arrival of 1989.
From her self-titled debut in 2006 through 1989 in 2014, Swift released her first five studio albums spaced in every even-numbered year.
“Usually things I write in the first six to eight months get thrown out,” Swift shared. “Not because they weren’t great songs, but because they don’t fit my idea of what the new album should be.”
By the close of the first quarter of the 21st century, Swift had perfected the art of making albums better than anyone, per the tally of artists with the most No. 1s on the Billboard 200 chart. Swift scored 14 leading collections in that span, one-upping both Drake and Jay-Z.
Below, run down the artists with the most No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 chart over the first 25 years of the 21st century.
Plus, browse highlights of Billboard’s Top Artists of the 21st Century chart and the entire 100-position ranking in Billboard’s charts menu, as well as the leading titles on Billboard’s Top Billboard 200 Albums of the 21st Century chart and Then, check back tomorrow (Jan. 10) for the premiere of Billboard’s Top Hot 100 Songs of the 21st Century chart.
Billboard’s Top Artists, Top Billboard 200 Albums and Top Hot 100 Songs of the 21st Century recaps reflect performance on weekly charts dated Jan. 1, 2000, through Dec. 28, 2024. The Top Artists category ranks the best-performing acts in that span based on activity on the Billboard 200 and Billboard Hot 100. (Titles released prior to mid-1999 are excluded, although such entries that appeared on the Billboard 200 or Hot 100 in that span contribute to the calculation of the Top Artists chart.)
Billboard 200 No. 1 albums during the first 25 years of the 21st century: Fearless; Speak Now; Red; 1989; Reputation; Lover; Folklore; Evermore; Fearless (Taylor’s Version); Red (Taylor’s Version); Midnights; Speak Now (Taylor’s Version); 1989 (Taylor’s Version); The Tortured Poets Department
Billboard 200 No. 1 albums during the first 25 years of the 21st century: Thank Me Later; Take Care; Nothing Was the Same; If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late; What a Time To Be Alive (with Future); Views; More Life; Scorpion; Care Package; Certified Lover Boy; Honestly, Nevermind; Her Loss (with 21 Savage); For All the Dogs
Billboard 200 No. 1 albums during the first 25 years of the 21st century: Vol. 2… Hard Knock Life; Vol. 3… Life and Times of S. Carter; The Dynasty Roc La Familia (2000 — ); The Blueprint; The Blueprint 2: The Gift and the Curse; The Black Album; Unfinished Business (with R. Kelly); MTV Ultimate Mash-Ups Presents (with Linkin Park): Collision Course; Kingdom Come; American Gangster; The Blueprint 3; Watch the Throne (with Kanye West); Magna Carta…; 4:44
Billboard 200 No. 1 albums during the first 25 years of the 21st century: The Marshall Mathers LP; The Eminem Show; Encore; Curtain Call: The Hits; Relapse; Recovery; The Marshall Mathers LP 2; Revival; Kamikaze; Music To Be Murdered By; The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce)
Billboard 200 No. 1 albums during the first 25 years of the 21st century: DS2; What a Time To Be Alive (with Future); EVOL; FUTURE; HNDRXX; Future Hndrxx Presents: The WIZRD; High Off Life; I Never Liked You; We Don’t Trust You (with Metro Boomin); We Still Don’t Trust You (with Metro Boomin); Mixtape Pluto
Billboard 200 No. 1 albums during the first 25 years of the 21st century: Late Registration; Graduation; 808s & Heartbreak; My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy; Watch the Throne (with Jay-Z); Yeezus; The Life of Pablo; ye; Jesus Is King; Donda; Vultures 1 (¥$: Ye & Ty Dolla $ign)