Christmas couldn’t stop Taylor Swift’s #1 run on Billboard 200 with ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’
Christmas time was here during the Billboard 200 tracking week of December 22 through December 28, but it didn’t keep Taylor Swift from continuing her run at number-one. Her re-recorded “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” album achieved a fifth nonconsecutive week on the chart with 98,000 equivalent album units based on its combined record sales, individual track sales and online streams. That turned out to be a historic milestone for the singer-songwriter. Read all about this week’s chart at Billboard.com.
Swift’s five weeks at number-one with “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” bring her all-time total to 68 weeks on top across her 13 chart toppers. So she’s averaging more than five weeks at number-one with each of her leaders, and she now has more weeks at number-one than any other solo artist in history. She still trails The Beatles among all artists, but it’s possible no one will ever catch them: they had 19 number-one albums which achieved a total of 132 weeks in the lead position.
It was still a successful Christmas for holiday releases, however, with Michael Buble‘s “Christmas” jumping up two spots to number-two. Nicki Minaj‘s “Pink Friday 2” was down a spot to number-two, while another seasonal collection, Nat King Cole‘s “The Christmas Song,” came in at number-four, its highest ever chart position. Rounding out the top five was Morgan Wallen‘s “One Thing at a Time.”
So how did we do predicting this week’s chart? In our Billboard 200 predictions contest, our odds correctly forecast the top three albums: “1989” at number-one, “Christmas” at number-two and “Pink Friday 2” at number-three. “The Christmas Song” took most of us by surprise, though: only three people correctly picked it for fourth place. And a dozen game players were right that “One Thing at a Time” would hold onto number-five. It was such a strong week for our odds that four users correctly answered five of the six prediction questions. How did you do?
Be sure to make your predictions so that artists can see how they’re faring in our racetrack odds. You can keep changing your predictions until just before the next tracking week begins every Friday. You’ll compete to win a spot on our leaderboard and eternal bragging rights. See our contest rules and sound off with other fans in our music forum. Read more Gold Derby entertainment news.