Taylor Swift ‘s streak at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with “ The Tortured Poets Department ” continues unabated, as the album fended off a strong challenge from a new Zach Bryan release to spend its 12th consecutive week atop that chart, breaking or tying a couple of records in the process. With the latest No.
1 ranking for “Tortured Poets,” Swift’s album broke the record previously set by Whitney Houston’s “Whitney” for the most initial consecutive weeks at No. 1 from an album by a female artist. That 1987 Houston album spent its first 11 weeks on top of the chart before dropping off.
As more contemporary benchmarks go: “Tortured Poets” is now tied with Morgan Wallen’s “One Thing at a Time” for the collection that has spent the most consecutive weeks atop the Billboard 200 in this century. (Altogether, Wallen’s latest blockbuster album spent a whopping 19 weeks at No. 1 toward the end of 2023 and beginning of 2024, but only the first 12 of those were consecutive.
) Amid these other benchmarks, Swift also broke a personal record this week, for the album of hers that has spent the most weeks at No 1 on the Billboard 200, consecutively or otherwise. As of last week, “Tortured Poets” was tied with her previous chart leaders, “Fearless” and “1989,” with 11 weeks each, and now the latest album has moved ahead of those. Bryan’s album looked like it had a chance of unseating Swift.
But “The Great American Bar Scene,” which registered 137.
