Given how much Taylor Swift dominated music and pop culture in 2023, it’s fitting that the albums of the year list ended with Swift at the top.
“1989 (Taylor’s Version),” the star’s remake of her 2014 pop hit, topped the Billboard 200 for the final two weeks of the year, scoring the album’s fourth and fifth atop spots and helping Swift break another record.
With the latest chart, Swift has now earned a total of 68 No. 1 appearances, across 13 of her LPs, surpassing Elvis Presley for the most No. 1 appearances by a solo artist. Of all acts, only the Beatles have been at number one more times (132) in the history of Billboard’s flagship albums chart, which dates back to 1956.
In its final week, “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” had the equivalent of 98,000 sales in the United States, including 48.5 million streams and 61,000 copies sold as a complete package, according to the tracking service Luminate. In the nine weeks since the new “1989” premiered at the end of October, it has had the equivalent of 2.8 million sales and just over a billion streams in the United States alone.
Half of the latest Top 10 is taken up by seasonal albums, led by Michael Bublé’s “Christmas” at No. 2. The others are Nat King Cole’s “The Christmas Song” (No. 4), “A Christmas Gift for You by Phil Spector” (No. 7), “Merry Christmas” by Mariah Carey (No. 8) and “The Greatest Christmas Hits” by Pentatonix (No. 10). Those titles are likely to drop off next week’s list, if not disappear entirely, as listeners tend to pack their Christmas playlists with decorations and wrapping paper on December 26.
Also this week, Nicki Minaj’s “Pink Friday 2” is at No. 3 and Morgan Wallen’s “One Thing at a Time” is at No. 5.
