Taylor Swift’s ‘Folklore’ becomes first album in 4 years to Top Charts for Six Weeks in a Row

Taylor Swift’s ‘Folklore’ has become the first album in four years to top the Billboard 200 for six weeks in a row. Taylor Swift’s “Folklore” continued its run at the top of the Rolling Stone album chart for a sixth consecutive week, as sales actually increased from week five.

In the latest frame, “Folklore” collected 91,2000 album units, a figure that combines sales and streaming numbers. That’s up from 87,400 album units the week before.

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Actual full-album sales in week six amounted to 42,900, an increase from 38,900 in week five. In both of these weeks, independent record shops reported getting shipments of autographed “Folklore” CDs, designated as a gesture to help boost traffic for brick-and-mortar indies during the pandemic, though these would not have accounted for more than a small portion of Swift’s overall tally. Streams for “Folklore” in the sixth week were tallied at 47 million.

The top new entries were Katy Perry’s “Smile” at No. 5 and Metallica’s “S&M2” at No. 6. These fell behind a slate of four recurrently popular albums that landed in exactly the same formation as they had the week before.

Repeating at Nos. 2-3 were the posthumous releases from Pop Smoke and Juice WRLD, with 72,700 and 60,500 album units, respectively. The “Hamilton” cast album spent yet another week at No. 4, collecting another 47,400 album units.

Perry’s “Smile,” her first album in three years, had 45,600 album units adding up to to a No. 5 debut. Full-album sales stood at 28,900 copies, individual song sales were 16,000 for the week, and the album was streamed 16.2 million times.

Metallica’s live album with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, a sequel to a 21-year-old collaboration that went double-platinum, premiered in sixth place with 37,400 album units. Of that, 29,800 were in full-album sales, slightly above Perry’s number of actual album sales. But it fell behind Perry in the overall ranking due to a much more modest 2.7 million in streams.

There was a third album debuting in the top 10: Internet Money’s “B4 the Storm,” in at No. 8 with 30,000 album units. In full-album sales, Internet Money’s album didn’t even crack four figures — with only 696 albums sold — but it was a success in streaming, with 37.2 million streams.

Holdovers in the top 10 included Lil Baby at No. 7, DaBaby at No. 9 and Post Malone at No. 10. Harry Styles’ recently resurgent album slipped just out of the top 10 to land at No. 11.

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Lil Wayne’s “No Ceilings” ran into a big ceiling on the chart, debuting at No. 18 with 20,900 album units. Other debuts from name artists included Needtobreathe at No. 21, Jaden at No. 39, the Avett Brothers at No. 65 and Toni Braxton at No. 139.

Last week’s top-debuting albums had big slides. Nas, who had premiered at No. 5, fell to No. 46 in week two. The Killers had a bigger chart decline, falling in week two from No. 11 to No. 197.

On the Rolling Stone songs chart, “WAP” by Cardi B featuring Megan Thee Stallion was a rerun in the top spot, commanding the No. 1 slot for the third time in four weeks. Its streaming number for the this fourth week stood at 39.3 million.

The top-debuting song was “Ice Cream” by Selena Gomez and Blackpink, in at No. 9 with 10 million streams.