Taylor Swift’s ‘Patient Zero’ Debuts at No. 1 on Billboard Hot 100

Taylor Swift’s “Patient Zero” bounds in at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming her 16th career leader.

The song stops the record reign of Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas,” which has run up an unprecedented 24 weeks atop the Hot 100 since February.

“Patient Zero” is one of four new songs on the deluxe version, released Sept. 25, of Swift’s 2025 album, The Life of a Showgirl, dubbed The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore. The set (all versions combined) surges back to No. 1 for a 13th week atop the Billboard 200 chart while its three other new tracks launch in the Hot 100’s top five: “Cleveland!,” “Babylon” and “Pink Clouding,” at Nos. 3, 4 and 5, respectively.

Swift boasts the third-most No. 1s in the Hot 100’s history, trailing only The Beatles’ 20 and Mariah Carey’s 19.

“Patient Zero” is also Swift’s 10th career No. 1 Hot 100 debut — tying her with Drake for the most.

Now up to 74 career Hot 100 top 10s, Swift continues to have the most among women. She has the second-most overall, after Drake’s 90.

Meanwhile, The Life of a Showgirl now houses 14 Hot 100 top 10s, including its original and deluxe versions — breaking out of a tie for the most ever from an album.

Read on for details of the entire top 10 on this week’s Hot 100.

The Hot 100 blends all-genre U.S. streaming (official audio and official video), radio airplay and sales data, the lattermost metric reflecting purchases of physical singles and digital tracks from full-service digital music retailers; digital singles sales from direct-to-consumer (D2C) sites are excluded from chart calculations. All charts dated Oct. 10, 2026, will update on Billboard.com tomorrow, Oct. 6. For all chart news, you can follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram. Plus, for all chart rules and explanations, click here.

Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the 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.

• ‘Patient Zero’ Streams, Airplay & Sales

  “Patient Zero,” on Republic Records, opens with 34.5 million official streams, 28.5 million radio airplay audience impressions and 65,000 sold in the U.S. Sept. 25-Oct. 1.

  The track debuts as Swift’s 12th No. 1 on the Streaming Songs chart; at No. 16 on Radio Songs; and as her record-extending 33rd No. 1 on Digital Song Sales. Its Swift-directed video, starring Swift, Dakota Johnson and Colin Farrell, premiered Sept. 27 during the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards.

  The song is the 1,195th No. 1 in the Hot 100’s history, and the 94th to debut at the summit.

• Swift’s 16th Hot 100 No. 1

  Upping her count to 16 Hot 100 No. 1s, Swift has the third-most in the chart’s 68-year history.

  Most Billboard Hot 100 No. 1s:

  • 20, The Beatles
  • 19, Mariah Carey
  • 16, Taylor Swift
  • 14, Rihanna
  • 14, Drake
  • 13, Michael Jackson
  • 12, Madonna
  • 12, The Supremes
  • 11, Whitney Houston
  • 10, Ariana Grande
  • 10, Janet Jackson
  • 10, Bruno Mars
  • 10, Stevie Wonder

  Here’s a rundown of Swift’s Hot 100 No. 1s:

  • “Patient Zero,” one week at No. 1 to date, Oct. 10, 2026*
  • “I Knew It, I Knew You,” two weeks, beginning June 20, 2026*
  • “Opalite,” one, Feb. 28, 2026
  • “The Fate of Ophelia,” 10, Oct. 18, 2025*
  • “Fortnight,” feat. Post Malone, two, May 4, 2024*
  • “Is It Over Now? (Taylor’s Version) [From the Vault],” one, Nov. 11, 2023*
  • “Cruel Summer,” four, Oct. 28, 2023
  • “Anti-Hero,” eight, Nov. 5, 2022*
  • “All Too Well (Taylor’s Version),” one, Nov. 27, 2021*
  • “Willow,” one, Dec. 26, 2020*
  • “Cardigan,” one, Aug. 8, 2020*
  • “Look What You Made Me Do,” three, Sept. 16, 2017
  • “Bad Blood,” feat. Kendrick Lamar, one, June 6, 2015
  • “Blank Space,” seven, Nov. 29, 2014
  • “Shake It Off,” four, Sept. 6, 2014*
  • “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” three, Sept. 1, 2012

  *No. 1 debut

  With 11 Hot 100 No. 1s in the 2020s, Swift widens her lead over Drake and Ariana Grande (eight each) for the most this decade.

  Plus, as “Patient Zero” follows Swift’s Hot 100 coronations in 2026 with “I Knew It, I Knew You” and “Opalite,” she’s the first artist with three new No. 1s in a single year since Kendrick Lamar landed three in 2024. Among women, Grande had last tripled up, in 2020.

• Swift’s 50th Week at No. 1

  “Patient Zero” gives Swift a 50th week career week atop the Hot 100, combining all her chart-toppers. She’s the sixth artist to reach the milestone.

  Artists With the Most Weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100:

  • 101, Mariah Carey
  • 60, Rihanna
  • 59, The Beatles
  • 58, Drake
  • 50, Boyz II Men
  • 50, Taylor Swift

• Swift’s 71st, 72nd, 73rd & 74th Top 10s

  Swift elevates her career total to 74 Hot 100 top 10s, dating to her first, “Change,” in August 2008.

  “Cleveland!” arrives led by 19.3 million streams, followed by “Babylon” (19 million) and “Pink Clouding” (18.4 million).

  Most Billboard Hot 100 Top 10s:

  • 90, Drake
  • 74, Taylor Swift
  • 38, Madonna
  • 35, The Beatles
  • 32, Rihanna
  • 30, Michael Jackson
  • 29, Elton John
  • 28, Mariah Carey
  • 28, Stevie Wonder
  • 27, Justin Bieber
  • 27, Janet Jackson
  • 26, Lil Wayne
  • 25, Elvis Presley (whose career start predated the Hot 100’s inception)

  Swift now has 182 top 40 Hot 100 hits and her 281 entries overall. The marks are the most among women and second among all acts only to Drake’s 241 and 404, respectively.

• Swift’s Latest No. 1 as a Writer & Producer

  Swift cowrote and coproduced “Patient Zero” with Max Martin and Shellback. She has now cowritten all 16 of her Hot 100 No. 1s and coproduced 10.

  Martin adds his 31st Hot 100 No. 1 as a songwriter, trailing only Paul McCartney’s 32. Martin tallies his record-extending 29th No. 1 as a producer.

  Shellback scores his 13th Hot 100 leader as a writer and 12th as a producer.

  Swift, Martin and Shellback also co-authored the three Hot 100 No. 1s from her 2014 album, 1989, which Martin and Shellback coproduced. They first led as a writing trio via “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” which Martin and Shellback co-produced with Dann Huff.

• Record 14 Showgirl Hot 100 Top 10s

  

  The Life of a Showgirl’s output swells to 14 Hot 100 top 10s, including its original and deluxe versions — the most ever from an album, surpassing the prior record of 10 shared by the set via its original edition.

  Swift’s 2022 album Midnights became the first album with 10 Hot 100 top 10s. Swift repeated the feat with 2024’s The Tortured Poets Department. After The Life of a Showgirl matched the mark in its debut week, Drake’s ICEMAN did so this May.

  Here are the 14 Hot 100 top 10s from The Life of a Showgirl, ranked by peak position:

  • No. 1 (10 weeks), “The Fate of Ophelia”
  • No. 1 (one week to date), “Patient Zero”*
  • No. 1 (one), “Opalite”
  • No. 3, “Cleveland!”*
  • No. 3, “Elizabeth Taylor”
  • No. 4, “Babylon”*
  • No. 4, “Father Figure”
  • No. 5, “Pink Clouding”*
  • No. 5, “Wood”
  • No. 6, “Wi$h Li$t”
  • No. 7, “Actually Romantic”
  • No. 8, “The Life of a Showgirl,” feat. Sabrina Carpenter
  • No. 9, “Eldest Daughter”
  • No. 10, “Cancelled!”

  *from the album’s Encore version

  Meanwhile, as The Life of a Showgirl, all iterations combined, now includes three Hot 100 No. 1s, it marks Swift’s second album to spin off that many, after 1989 (“Shake It Off,” “Blank Space” and “Bad Blood,” featuring Lamar) — the last such set by a woman to do so until this week.

  The Life of a Showgirl is the first album overall with three Hot 100 leaders since The Weeknd’s After Hours in 2020-21.

• Rest of Top 10: ‘Choosin’ Texas’ & More

  Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas” backtracks to No. 2 following its record 24 weeks atop the Hot 100. It’s No. 1 on the multimetric Hot Country Songs chart for a 43rd week.

  Stella Lefty’s “Boston” falls to No. 6 from its No. 2 Hot 100 peak; Morgan Wallen’s “Been by Now” slides 3-7, after it debuted at its No. 2 best; Ariana Grande’s “Hate That I Made You Love Me” descends 4-8, after it led in its debut week in June.

  Olivia Rodrigo’s “Stupid Song” returns to the Hot 100’s top 10 (13-9), after it hit No. 3 in its debut week in June. It’s up 14% to 11.8 million streams and 12% to 22.2 million in in airplay audience and sold 9,000 physical copies following its release on cassette and 7-inch vinyl, while she kicked off her The Unraveled Tour Sept. 25.

  Rounding out the Hot 100’s top 10, Tame Impala and JENNIE’s “Dracula” drops to No. 10 from its No. 5 high. It leads the multimetric Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart for a 39th week and Hot Rock & Alternative Songs for a 21st week, as it tops Radio Songs for a second week (62.5 million, essentially even).