Taylor Swift has officially broken Elvis Presley‘s long-standing record for an artist with the most weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. Swift recently hit 68 weeks at the top of the chart when the re-recording of her 2014 album 1989 (Taylor’s Version), hit No. 1 for a fifth week at the end of 2023.
Presley previously held the record with 67 weeks at No. 1 with 10 albums charting from 1956 through 2002. His longest-running album, the Blue Hawaii soundtrack, spent 20 weeks at No. 1 from 1961 through 1962. An additional three soundtracks by Presley —Roustabout, GI Blues, and Loving You—also went to No. 1.
Swift first topped the chart with her second album Fearless in 2008, which spent 11 weeks at No. 1. More chart success followed with Speak Now (six weeks); Red (seven weeks); 1989 (11 weeks), Reputation (four weeks); Lover (one week); Folklore (eight weeks); and Evermore (four weeks).
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Her rerecorded albums have also helped her make chart history with Fearless (Taylor’s Version) (two weeks at No. 1); Red (Taylor’s Version) (one week); Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) (two weeks); and 1989 (Taylor’s Version) (five weeks). Along with her Taylor’s Version rerecordings, Swift’s 10th album, Midnights, released in 2023, also stayed at No. 1 for six weeks.
Though Swift has beaten out Presley’s record, no artist has beaten The Beatles, whose albums have spent 132 weeks at the top of the 200 chart.
In 2024, Swift may also be on her way to breaking another Presley record on the charts. Both are currently tied for the most No. 1 singles in a year. Presley and Swift artists had three No. 1 singles in a single year, twice.
Swift broke another series of records in 2023 on the charts, along with touring and streaming. The release of 1989 (Taylor’s Version) surpassed the most single-day streams for any artist, and Swfit now holds the record for the most albums to debut at No. 1 consecutively, with 13.
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In the summer of 2023, Swift also beat out Barbra Streisand as the female artist with the most No. 1 albums in history, following the release of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version). She is also the only artist to have five albums charting in the Top 10 of the 200 simultaneously, which Prince previously achieved following his death in 2016.
Along with her chart milestones, Swift’s The Eras Tour, which kicked off in March 2023 and will conclude in 2024, has already become the highest-grossing music tour in history.
To cap off 2023, the release of Swift’s The Eras Tour film, reached blockbuster ticket sales at $92.8 million in the U.S., making it the fifth-largest theatrical release opening of 2023.
Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
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