Taylor Swift's 'Showgirl' Logs 15th Week at No. 1 on Billboard 200

By Daniel Okafor

Taylor Swift's "The Life of a Showgirl" holds at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for a 15th non-consecutive week. The album earned 87,000 additional equivalent album units (the chart's blended metric combining streams and sales) this week, boosted by its newly issued "Encore" edition.

The "Encore" edition arrived September 24 and carries four new tracks, among them "Patient Zero," which tops the Hot 100. The reissue collected 173,000 equivalent units in its first week, per Billboard data. That's a solid second wind for a record that moved 2.7 million copies in its opening frame last October — roughly the population of Chicago buying one album each in seven days.

What does 'Patient Zero' mean for Swift's chart record?

The single held at No. 1 on the Hot 100 for a second week last Monday. That run brings Swift to 51st career weeks at the summit, the fifth-highest total in chart history. The company ahead of her is select:

• Mariah Carey — 101 weeks
• Rihanna — 60
• The Beatles — 59
• Drake — 58

Fifty-one weeks at No. 1 is nearly a full year of dominance, spread across a catalog. Carey's record, by comparison, remains a distant landmark.

Swift has spent recent months performing at private events rather than touring. Appearances include the Grammy Museum and a Ross House FYC showcase (an awards-season screening for voters). Just last night she played her first full-band show since the Eras Tour, at the Academy Museum 6th Annual Gala. The set list ran from new material — "I Knew It, I Knew You," "The Fate of Ophelia" — back to "Blank Space" and "Love Story."

Who else made the top 10?

Olivia Rodrigo's "You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love" enters at No. 2. Morgan Wallen's "I'm the Problem" sits at No. 3, Ella Langley's "Dandelion" at No. 4 and Noah Kahan's "The Great Divide" at No. 5. Greta Van Fleet earn their fourth top 10 as "Palace for the People" bows at No. 9. Drake places twice: "Habibti" at No. 6 and "Iceman" at No. 10. Olivia Dean's "The Art of Loving" lands at No. 7; Kahan's "Stick Season" rises to No. 8.

Two albums in the top 10 for Kahan, two for Drake, and still nobody dislodges Swift. With "Patient Zero" holding and the "Encore" edition barely a fortnight old, week 16 looks less like a question than a scheduling formality.