The chart this week featured a clash of titans as two big names battled it out for supremacy. In the one corner, Ye and Ty Dolla $ign released the album VULTURES 2 on Saturday, August 3. The two artists recently teamed up to work on the VULTURES trilogy, with the first part, VULTURES 1, having spent two weeks at number one back when it was released in February. In the other corner, Taylor Swift’s album The Tortured Poets Department has now spent more than three months total at number one, including on last week’s chart, and naturally, people were watching the strategies behind both these releases. Popular opinion put VULTURES 2 in the lead when it first came out. Considering TTPD recently moved around 70,000 units and the first part of the VULTURES trilogy debuted on the strength of 148,000 units, that seemed like a safe bet. But in the end, it was just the opposite: Taylor took number one with 142,000 units, while Ye and Ty only pushed 107,000 units, bringing them in at number two. Looks like Ye’s number-one debut streak on the Billboard 200 has ended at 11 albums.
TTPD, meanwhile, hit number one for a 14th week, bringing it closer to Morgan Wallen’s 19 weeks for One Thing at a Time and Adele’s 24 weeks for her album 21. With 142,000 units moved, TTPD performed twice as well as it did last week. Driving that performance were 84,000 units coming from album sales, representing a sixfold increase and bringing it to number one on Top Album Sales. Streaming numbers were in line with last week’s, with 75.43 million streams making 58,000 units, which put the album at number two on Top Streaming Albums.
VULTURES 2 pulled off 60,000 units from album sales and 46,000 units from streaming (50.44 million streams), making it the second- and sixth-best performing album of the week in terms of sales and streaming, respectively. Given VULTURES 1 had 170 million streams in its first week, the buzz around the trilogy seems to have died down quite a bit. Still, album sales of VULTURES 2 represented a threefold increase compared to the 18,000 units moved by the first entry in the series.
The figures for both TTPD and VULTURES 2 reflect the intense competition that broke out immediately after Ye and Ty’s album dropped. VULTURES 2 didn’t get a physical version immediately upon release, but the digital version was just $5. Taylor countered by putting out a new digital version of her album with an exclusive bonus track, and rereleasing three limited edition digital versions, on the same Saturday VULTURES 2 came out. Then, on Sunday, 16 physical editions were sold at a 13% discount—perhaps in celebration of TTPD’s 13 weeks at number one? Ye then responded on Wednesday the seventh with a new version of his album: a deluxe edition containing a track not available to stream, called “Take Off Your Dress.” The following day—the last day sales are counted for the week—four new digital versions of the album were released, each with its own exclusive track. Not to be outdone, four new digital editions of TTPD, featuring surprise performances from Taylor’s recent stint in the UK for her Eras Tour, also came out.
At the same time, Taylor canceled the three-day concert she had planned for Vienna, Austria due to concerns around terrorism. With plans for close to 200,000 fans disrupted, there was debate around whether it was appropriate to release the limited edition albums in that space of time just for the sake of a chart battle, but the very same fans came pouring out into the streets of Vienna to sing together and show their steadfast support.
Meanwhile, Chappell Roan’s album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess sold 64,000 units, moving up from number four last week to number three—its best position to date. Brat by Charli xcx climbed from number nine to six as well, with 56,000 units.

Shaboozey’s single “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” continues to top the chart for a fourth straight week and its fifth overall. Sales jumped from number two last week to number one, joining the song’s lead in streaming and radio airplay—the three metrics that dictate the Hot 100 ranking. It’s the first song to pull the feat off since Adele’s 2021 song “Easy on Me,” and the very first country song to do so. In fact, since Billboard introduced the Streaming Songs chart in January 2013, only 12 songs have achieved this. It also hit number one on the Digital Song Sales chart for the 10th time, the first since BTS’s single “Butter.” BTS holds the all-time record thanks to both “Butter” and “Dynamite” having each topped the chart 18 times. Only 16 songs total have ever spent 10 weeks or more at number one on that chart.

The top five songs on the Hot 100 from last week remain in exactly the same spots this week. The songs from numbers six through 11 all stuck around as well, although they swapped places within that bracket. The only song to get anywhere near them was Charli xcx and Billie Eilish’s collaborative track “Guess,” which came in at number 12.

“Guess” is a track off the deluxe version of Charli xcx’s album Brat. The song, first released on June 10, saw a remix featuring Billie Eilish drop on August 1.  The remix garnered a huge amount of attention, shooting to number one on Spotify’s daily chart for the US immediately upon release. In the week following its release day, streams went up more than eight times as high to 20.4 million and sales increased sixfold to 50 million. All the momentum made the song debut at number 12 on the Hot 100, marking Charli’s first spot in the top 40 since she peaked at number eight with “Boom Clap” in 2014. The single also debuted at number six on the Streaming Songs chart, giving the singer her first top 10 since she featured on Iggy Azalea’s song “Fancy,” also in 2014. “Guess” jumped from number 16 all the way to number one on the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart. Charli last sat atop the chart in 2013 for her work on Icona Pop’s hit “I Love It.” Charli’s latest single also debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart, the only British artist to reach the top so far this year. Looking further afield, the song also landed at number three on the Global 200 and number five on the Global Excl. US chart.
Charli’s strategy to christen the summer of 2024 “brat summer” is the latest textbook case of pop music viral marketing. Let’s take a minute to take a closer look at “Guess” and some other remixes. Charli has been putting out remix after remix from Brat to keep the buzz going. Aside from Billie, Charli’s also enlisted the help of other famous artists like Lorde, Robyn, and Addison Rae to add their own unique flair. The version of “Girl, so confusing” with Lorde and Eilish’s additions to “Guess” make it likely that brat summer’s going to stretch out well beyond 2024. There’s more to Charli’s remix strategy than simple name recognition—she references the featured artists themselves, comments on the real world, and turns the remixes and their releases into events in and of themselves. For instance, “Guess” taps into personal and cultural contexts by touching on the difficulties Billie faced in the press after identifying as queer, and even ties into Billie’s recent single “Lunch.”
Even the song’s closing line (“You wanna guess the address of the party we’re at?”) came to pass when Charli had her birthday party in LA on August 3. With guest appearances by everyone from the singers on her remixes to big names like Sabrina Carpenter and Rosalía, the event took social media by storm over the weekend. At one point, the birthday girl turned the party into a mini concert, with Lorde performing “Girl, so confusing” and Billie singing “Guess.” In other words, she skipped the whole late-night talk show/SNL approach and performed the songs for influencers and avid followers who would spread the songs globally for her.

Jimin’s latest solo release has now spent three consecutive weeks on the charts. His album MUSE sits at number 32 on the Billboard 200 and 14 on Top Album Sales. The artist is also currently number 25 on the Artist 100. His single “Who” is number 24 on the Hot 100, 16 on Digital Song Sales, and 20 on Streaming Songs. The song is also number five on the Global 200 and number two on the Global Excl. US chart. “Be Mine,” meanwhile, returned to the charts, snagging number 89 on the Global 200 and 52 on the Global Excl. US chart.
Stray Kids’ EP ATE is number 13 on the Billboard 200 and number three for album sales. The Kids themselves are number 14 on the Artist 100.
ENHYPEN’s album ROMANCE: UNTOLD is number 54 on the 200 and number four on Top Album Sales, while the group is number 30 on the Artist 100 chart.
Red Velvet’s Cosmic EP debuts at number 145 on the Billboard 200 and places sixth for album sales. On the Artist 100, Red Velvet is number 44.
Debuting at number 11 on Top Album Sales is RIIZE’s first mini album, RIIZING. ATEEZ’s album GOLDEN HOUR: Part 1 is at number 30, aespa’s first studio album, Armageddon, is 33, and minisode 3: TOMORROW by TOMORROW X TOGETHER sits at number 36.
Like Red Velvet, RIIZE takes their first crack at the Artist 100 this week, debuting at number 80. ATEEZ is currently number 69.
Over on the Heatseekers Albums chart, Cosmic (Red Velvet) debuts at number one and RIIZING (RIIZE) at number five. The Heatseekers Albums chart is calculated the same way as the Billboard 200, but it only includes artists who have never made it into the top 100.
On the Emerging Artists chart, Red Velvet returns to number one, while RIIZE charts for the first time, entering at number six. The Emerging Artists chart is calculated the same way as the Artist 100 chart, but it only includes artists who have never ranked in the top 25 of either the Hot 100 or the Billboard 200.
We’ll close by taking a look at the figures for K-pop singles on the Global 200: