Taylor Swift’s Evermore skips back to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart (dated Jan. 16) for a third nonconsecutive week, up from No. 2 a week ago. The album earned 56,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Jan. 7 (down 22%), according to MRC Data.
The album, now in its fourth week on the chart, spent its first two weeks atop the list (charts dated Dec. 26, 2020, and Jan. 2, 2021), before stepping aside to No. 2 for a week (Jan. 9 chart) when Playboi Carti’s Whole Lotta Red bowed at No. 1.
With Evermore’s third week in the lead, Swift now has a cumulative 51 weeks at No. 1 across all eight of her chart-topping albums. That ties Michael Jackson for the fourth-most weeks at No. 1 in the chart’s 65-year history. The two superstars only trail The Beatles (a record 132 weeks), Elvis Presley (67) and Garth Brooks (52).
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Jan. 16, 2021-dated chart (where Evermore returns to No. 1) will be posted in full on Billboard’s website on Jan. 12. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
Of Evermore’s 56,000 equivalent album units earned in the tracking week ending Jan. 7, SEA units comprise 38,000 (equaling 50.43 million on-demand streams of the album’s songs), album sales comprise 16,000 and TEA units comprise 2,000.
Though Evermore had a 22% decline in units, that slide was tempered by the release of a deluxe edition of the album on Thursday, Jan. 7, the final day of chart’s tracking week. The new edition boasts two additional songs. (All versions of the album are combined for tracking purposes.)
Evermore captures the smallest unit total for a No. 1 album in nearly two years, since A Boogie Wit da Hoodie’s Hoodie SZN was No. 1 on the chart dated Feb. 16, 2019, with just 47,000 units. (The top of the chart can sometimes be a bit light in units at the start of the year, as few new albums are released in January. On the new chart, for example, there are no debuts within the top 100, and a week ago, there was just one debut on the entire list: Playboi Carti’s Whole Lotta Red at No. 1.)
Lil Durk’s The Voice climbs 3-2 in its third week on the list, a new peak, with 48,000 equivalent album units earned (down 28%). The Voice matches Lil Durk’s career-high on the list, as his last release, Just Cause Y’all Waited 2 peaked at No. 2 on the July 11, 2020-dated chart.
The Voice debuted at No. 46 on the chart dated Jan. 2, following just one day of activity, as the album was released on Thursday, Dec. 24 (the final day of the Jan. 2 chart’s tracking week). It then surged to No. 3 in its first full chart tracking week.
A trio of former No. 1s are next, as Pop Smoke’s Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon rises 4-3 with 44,000 equivalent album units (down 3%), Ariana Grande’s Positions climbs 5-4 with 35,000 units (down 8%) and Playboi Carti’s Whole Lotta Red falls 1-5 in its second week with 33,000 units (down 66%). Megan Thee Stallion’s Good News bumps 7-6 with just over 32,000 units earned (down 4%).
The rest of the top 10 comprises former chart-toppers: Luke Combs’ What You See Is What You Get ascends 8-7 (32,000 equivalent album units earned; down 4%), Bad Bunny’s El Ultimo Tour del Mundo moves 9-8 (31,000; down 7%), Juice WRLD’s Legends Never Die jumps 11-9 (30,000; down 4%) and Lil Baby’s My Turn hops 13-10 (29,000; down 2%).
