Key Takeaways

• Chart Performance: Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl remains at No. 1 for an 11th week.
• Album Boost: The album’s sales increased by 35% due to new vinyl variants.
• Holiday Albums: A record seven holiday albums appear in the top 10 this week.
• Streaming Success: Bing Crosby’s Ultimate Christmas achieves its best streaming week ever.

Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl captures an 11th nonconsecutive week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated Jan. 3, 2026). It earned 141,000 equivalent album units in the United States in the week ending Dec. 15 (up 35%), according to Luminate. The album got a boost for a second straight week, partially attributed to three new color vinyl variants, exclusively sold via Swift’s webstore. The three editions became available to pre-order on Nov. 24 for 24 hours (or while supplies lasted) and were scheduled to begin shipping to customers on or about Dec. 19. (Such mail order sales only count for the chart when they ship to customers.)

With The Life of a Showgirl reaching an 11th week at No. 1, it matches the 11-week reigns of Swift’s 1989 (2014-15) and Fearless (2008-09). Only The Tortured Poets Department, with 17 weeks at No. 1 in 2024, has more weeks atop the list among Swift’s 15 No. 1 albums, the most leaders among soloists.

Also in the top 10 of the Billboard 200, likely sparked by the chart’s tracking week ending on Christmas Day for the first time since 2014, are a record seven holiday albums in the region. The highest-ranked holiday title is Bing Crosby’s Ultimate Christmas, reaching a new peak at No. 2.

Previously, the most holiday titles to populate the top 10 was six, which happened multiple times — most recently just last week, on the Dec. 27-dated chart. The first time there were six holiday albums in the top 10 was on the Jan. 5, 1959, chart, when holiday sets by Mitch Miller, Bing Crosby, Johnny Mathis, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Mantovani and Perry Como dotted the region.

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, compiled by Luminate. 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. 3, 2026-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Dec. 30. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.

Of The Life of a Showgirl’s 141,000 equivalent album units earned in the latest tracking week, album sales comprise 97,000 (up 76% — it holds at No. 1 on Top Album Sales), SEA units comprise 43,000 (down 11%, equaling 56.23 million on-demand official streams of the set’s tracks; it falls 6-16 on Top Streaming Albums) and TEA units comprise 1,000 (up less than 1%).

A record seven holiday albums populate the top 10 of the Billboard 200, with the parade of festive titles led by Bing Crosby’s Ultimate Christmas rising four spots to a new peak at No. 2, with 110,000 equivalent album units earned (up 68%). Nearly all of that sum (106,000) comprises SEA units, which equals 140.71 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs. That marks the late Crosby’s best streaming week ever for an album and the biggest streaming week ever for any holiday album. Ultimate Christmas beats its own record as it previously had the biggest streaming week ever for both a Crosby album and any holiday title with 125.77 million on the Jan. 4, 2025-dated chart (the same week it had reached its previous high of No. 3 on the Billboard 200).

Ultimate Christmas also hits No. 1 on the Top Streaming Albums chart for the first time, rising from No.2 to No.1.

Ultimate Christmas contains such classic Holiday 100-charting tunes from Crosby as “White Christmas” (featuring The Ken Darby Singers and John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra), “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas,” “Do You Hear What I Hear?” and “Mele Kalikimaka” (with The Andrews Sisters).

Michael Bublé’s former No.1 Christmas climbs from No.5 to No.3 on the latest Billboard 200 (104,000 equivalent album units, up by 51%), Nat King Cole’s The Christmas Song rises from No.5 to No.4 (93,000 units up by 70%) and the various artists project A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Spector hits a new best as it jumps from No.9 to No.5 (81,000 units up by 70%). The latter surpasses its previous peak of No.7 achieved on Jan.6 ,2024 chart.

The second of three non-holiday titles in the top ten is Morgan Wallen’s chart-topping I’m the Problem, which drops from No2 to No6 (75,000 equivalent album units earned up by 3%).

Vince Guaraldi Trio’s soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas is up one spot to No7 (74,000 equivalent album units up by 49%), Mariah Carey’s Merry Christmas jingles from No10 to No8 (72,000 up by 58%) and Frank Sinatra’s Ultimate Christmas hits a new high as it rises from No12 to No9 (65,000 up by 65%). The lattermost beats its previous high as it hit No10 on Jan4-dated chart.

Rounding out the top ten is the former No1 soundtrack to KPop Demon Hunters, which falls from No4 to No10 with 62 ,000 equivalent album units earned down by 13%.

Luminate ,the independent data provider to the Billboard charts ,completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling weekly chart rankings . Luminate reviews and authenticates data . In partnership with Billboard ,data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed using established criteria before final chart calculations are made and published.