Taylor Swift has masterminded her way to another record-breaking year.
The pop superstar has dominated the past few years with new music and her massively popular ‘Eras‘ Tour, both of which have allowed her to make even more history. She has broken or extended several records in recent months, including earning the ultimate milestone: the highest-grossing concert tour of all time.
With her newest album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” Swift continues to set scores of records. These are some of her most impressive and historic accomplishments so far.
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Youngest artist to reach number one on the Hot Country Songs chart
After she released her single “Our Song” in 2006, Swift became the youngest artist in history to have written and performed a No. 1 on the Hot Country Songs chart at just 17 years old. The song peaked at number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.
Youngest person to win entertainer of the year at the CMA’s
Swift became the youngest person to win the Country Music Association Awards’ top honor in 2009. She was 19 years old at the time.
Most American Music Awards in history
With 40 awards, Swift has taken the lead as the artist with the most American Music Awards in history. She surpassed Michael Jackson, the male artist with the most awards at 26, and Whitney Houston, who has 22. She was also recognized with the AMA’s “Artist of the Decade” award in 2019 and performed a medley of some of her most popular tunes at the ceremony that year.
First woman with four albums in Billboard chart top 10 simultaneously
When “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” debuted in July, it was Swift’s fourth album to occupy the Billboard 200 chart’s top 10 at the same time, alongside “Midnights,” “Lover” and “Folklore.” This made her the first woman to have four albums in the Billboard chart’s top 10 simultaneously and only the second living artist to do so after Herb Alpert in 1966. Prince also previously achieved this after his death in 2016.
“It’s a pretty amazing feat,” Alpert said to The New York Times. “With the way radio is these days, and the way music is distributed, with streaming, I didn’t think anyone in this era could do it.”
Additionally, Swift set a record for most albums by a female artist to chart on the Billboard 200 in a single week with 11. According to Billboard, since 1963, Prince and The Beatles are the only other artists who charted more albums simultaneously.
Most number one albums by a woman in history
Swift’s re-recording of her album “Speak Now” debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart when it was released in July. This was the singer’s 12th album to debut at number one, breaking the record for most number one albums by a female artist in history. This record was previously held by Barbra Streisand.
Most streamed country album in a single day on Spotify
Spotify said “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” was the most streamed country album in a single day in its history, as well as the most streamed album in a day of 2023 so far.
First woman with new number one albums in five consecutive years
According to Billboard, Swift is the only woman to chart a new number one album on the Billboard 200 in five consecutive calendar years with 2019’s “Lover,” 2020’s “Folklore” and “Evermore,” 2021’s “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” and “Red (Taylor’s Version),” 2022’s “Midnights,” and 2023’s “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version).” The only other artists to achieve this feat are The Beatles, Drake, Jay-Z and Paul McCartney.
Swift also became the only act to have nine records sell half a million copies in one week in the U.S. since at least 1991, when Luminate started tracking the sales, per Billboard.
Second most Hot 100-charting songs ever
When “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” dropped, all 22 songs from the album debuted on Billboard’s Hot 100. This means Swift has released 212 Hot 100-charting songs in her career, the second most of all time after she surpassed the cast of “Glee,” Billboard said. She’s second only to Drake, so she’s number one for a female artist.
First woman with simultaneous top 10 songs from three albums
Also after the release of “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version),” three of Swift’s songs occupied the Billboard Hot 100’s top 10 at once: “I Can See You,” “Cruel Summer” and “Karma.” Billboard said this made Swift the “first woman ever with simultaneous top 10s from three of her own albums.” No act has achieved this other than The Beatles.
Only artist to win Album of the Year Grammy four times
Swift made history at the 2024 Grammy Awards when she took home the Album of the Year for “Midnights,” becoming the first and only person to have won the award four times. She previously won AOTY for “Fearless” in 2010, “1989” in 2016, and “Folklore” in 2021. Her win for “Folklore,” which she wrote and produced during the Covid-19 lockdown, made her the first woman to win AOTY three times.
Most number one hits on Billboard’s US Digital Song Sales chart
Swift holds the record for the most number one hits on Billboard’s U.S. Digital Song Sales chart, said Guinness World Records. She furthered her lead in May 2024 when her single “Fortnight,” a duet with Post Malone on “Tortured Poets,” debuted at the top of the digital song sales chart, her 29th song to make it to the spot.
Most attended concert by a female artist in the U.S.
According to Capital FM, the opening night of Swift’s Eras Tour in Glendale, Arizona, set a record for the most attended U.S. concert by a female artist with a crowd of 69,000. Madonna reportedly held this record since 1987.
Swift’s tour went on to continue breaking numerous attendance records, including at Texas’ AT&T Stadium, Tennessee’s Nissan Stadium, and Pennsylvania’s Acrisure Stadium. “Apparently, you have broken the attendance record for any event in Pittsburgh ever,” Swift told the crowd at Acrisure Stadium, adding, “No group of people this big has ever gotten together for one thing in Pittsburgh ever.”
First concert tour to gross $1 billion
One of Swift’s biggest milestones was setting the record for the highest-grossing music tour ever after her “Eras” tour became the first to surpass $1 billion in revenue, according to the Guinness World Records. Beginning in March 2023 and set to run through December 2024, the international tour earned $1.04 billion as of the halfway point in December 2023, according to Pollstar. She broke the record set by Elton John with his “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour, which lasted from 2018 through 2023 and grossed $939 million. She did promise she’d never go out of style, didn’t she?
Highest-earning female musician in the industry
In October 2023, Forbes reported that Swift became a billionaire, making her the highest-earning female musician in the industry, with an estimated net worth of $1.1 billion. She is also the first person to reach billionaire status with her music alone, driven in part by the success of her “Eras” tour.
Biggest vinyl sales week of modern times
Out of the 1.5 million copies in “Tortured Poets” first-week sales, 700,000 were vinyl records, breaking her record for the biggest sales week for an album on vinyl since Luminate began tracking data in 1991, Billboard said. Her latest album’s sales beat the 693,000 sold by “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” in its first week in 2023.
Most streams in a single day on Spotify
Spotify said “Tortured Poets” broke the record for most streams in a single day in the platform’s history less than 12 hours after its release and was the first ever to amass over 300 million streams in a single day. The record was previously held by Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” album.
Relatedly, the opening song on the album, “Fortnight,” broke Spotify’s record for the most streams ever gained by one song in a day.
Most pre-saved countdown in Spotify history
The “TTPD” countdown page on Spotify broke the platform’s record for most pre-saves before it was even released. The countdown launched on March 28, two weeks before the album’s release, with a clock to watch time tick down and cryptic videos of Swift printing lyrics from the project with a typewriter.
First album to surpass 1 billion streams on Spotify
Five days after its release, “TTPD” became the first album in history to surpass one billion streams in a single week and is now the fastest album to hit the billion-stream milestone.
Biggest streaming week of all time
Within its first six days on the market, “TTPD” became the most streamed album in a single week, with 799 million streams across all platforms. Swift broke Drake’s previous record of 745.92 million streams with his 2018 LP “Scorpion.”
Historic Billboard 200 debut
The release week of “Tortured Poets” was a smashing success, with the album debuting at number one on the Billboard 200 chart in its first week. The album also “nabbed the record for largest streaming week ever for an album since the chart started measuring by units in December 2014,” Billboard said. The first-week total reached 2.61 million units, with album sales accounting for 1.914 million. With this being her 14th chart-topper, Swift now ties with Jay-Z for most number one debuts among solo artists.
Most new albums to generate Hot 100 number ones
With “Fortnight” at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, Swift broke Rihanna’s record for most albums with all-new material with at least one number-one hit on the chart, as “TTPD” brought her to eight. As her seventh song to debut at the top of the Hot 100, “Fortnight” helped Swift tie with Ariana Grande for most chart-toppers among women. Drake has the most overall, with nine, but “Fortnight” also ties Swift with him for the most Hot 100 number ones this decade, as both of them have seven.
Two Streaming Songs chart records
Swift broke two records for the Streaming Songs chart with “Tortured Poets.” First, she took the top 15 spots of the May 4 chart, bypassing Drake’s previous record of 14 spots, which he set in September 2021 with “Certified Lover Boy.” Then she got a total of 31 songs on the list, the entirety of the new album, which is the “most any act has accomplished since the chart debuted in 2013,” Billboard said.
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