Taylor Swift achieves new career high: 11 weeks at no. 1 on billboard 200 with 'The Tortured Poets Department'

Taylor Swift's latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, has achieved an impressive feat, securing its 11th consecutive week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart as of July 13. This accomplishment ties it with her albums 1989 and Fearless as her longest-leading No. 1 albums. The last time a woman’s album spent 11 weeks at the top was Swift’s own 1989 in 2014-15.If The Tortured Poets Department reaches 12 weeks at No. 1, it will be the first album by a woman to do so since Adele’s 21, which spent 24 nonconsecutive weeks at the top in 2011-12.
In the week ending July 4, The Tortured Poets Department earned 114,000 equivalent album units in the U.S., a slight 1% dip from the previous week. This album, which debuted at No. 1 on May 4, has not budged from the top spot since its release.
Notably, The Tortured Poets Department is the first album by a woman to spend 11 consecutive weeks at No. 1 since the Whitney Houston-led The Bodyguard soundtrack did so for 13 straight weeks from December 1992 to March 1993.
Other notable movements in the Billboard 200 include Megan Thee Stallion's Megan debuting at No. 3, making it her sixth top 10 album, and Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter jumping from No. 50 to No. 10 following the release of a deluxe vinyl edition.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption measured in equivalent album units, which include album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA), and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). The new chart, dated July 13, 2024, will be fully available on Billboard’s website on July 9.
Of the 114,000 equivalent album units The Tortured Poets Department earned, 78,000 were from SEA units, marking its 11th week at No. 1 on the Top Streaming Albums chart. The album also saw 35,000 in album sales, boosted by two new CD variants sold exclusively on Swift’s webstore.
The Tortured Poets Department now matches Whitney Houston’s 1987 album Whitney as the only albums by women to spend their first 11 weeks at No. 1. Only three other albums have managed this: Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time, which spent its first 12 weeks at No. 1, and Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life, which spent its first 13 weeks at No. 1.
Swift has now spent a total of 80 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, extending her record among solo artists. Elvis Presley holds the second spot with 67 weeks. Swift is tied with Jay-Z for the most No. 1 albums among soloists, each having 14.
In the latest chart, Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time rose from No. 3 to No. 2, Megan Thee Stallion’s Megan debuted at No. 3, Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft remained at No. 4, and Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess climbed to No. 5. With Swift, Megan Thee Stallion, Eilish, and Roan in the top five, this marks the first time in over a year that four women-led albums are in the top five simultaneously.
Other albums in the top 10 include Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album rising to No. 6, Peso Pluma’s Éxodo falling to No. 7, Shaboozey’s Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going climbing to No. 8, Noah Kahan’s Stick Season rising to No. 9, and Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter re-entering at No. 10.