Taylor Swift breaks Elvis Presley’s record as solo artiste with most weeks at top spot on album chart

LOS ANGELES — Singer-songwriter Taylor Swift has broken Elvis Presley‘s long standing record for the most weeks spent atop the Billboard 200 album chart by a solo artiste.

She set a new mark of 68 total weeks, as ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’ landed on top of the chart for a fifth time in the final full tracking week of 2023, reports Variety.

Although Swift set a new record for an individual, the ultimate high-water mark among all artistes is still held by the Beatles, whose albums have spent 132 weeks on top of the Billboard 200. Presley’s 67 weeks now puts him in second place among solo recording artistes and third place among all acts.

As per Variety, ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’ registered 98,000 album-equivalent units for the week ending December 28, which was roughly half-in and half-out of the peak holiday buying season, marking a 28 percent decline from the previous week, per Luminate, and as reported by Billboard. Of those 98,000 units for the week, 61,000 were in full-album sales, boosted by a last-minute surge of Christmas gift purchases.

Filling out the top 10 of the album chart beyond Swift’s leader were Michael Buble’s 2011 Christmas album rising two places to Number 2, Nicki Minaj’s ‘Pink Friday’ slipping a spot to Number 3, Nat King Cole’s seasonal album at Number 4 (its historical peak to date), Morgan Wallen’s 2023 blockbuster ‘One Thing at a Time’ holding on at Number 5, Drake also holding steady at Number 6 with ‘For All the Dogs’, ‘A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Spector’ at Number 7 (another historic peak), Mariah Carey’s Christmas album at Number 8, Swift’s 2022 release ‘Midnights’ at Number 9 and Pentatonix’s ‘Greatest Christmas Hits; at Number 10.

Also read: Taylor Swift tops Billboard’s The Greatest Pop Stars of 2023