Stray Kids’ Seven No. 1 Albums Streak Threatens Taylor Swift’s Reign

The Billboard 200 chart is not merely a ranking of popular music; it is a battleground where musical eras collide, records are set, and legacies are either cemented or upended.

This week, the stakes are exceptionally high, presenting a definitive clash of two chart heavyweights—one a global pop monolith whose reign seems unbreakable, the other an undefeated K-Pop machine that has never known defeat at the summit.

For the upcoming chart, dated 6 December, the music industry watches closely as a massive upset looms: Will Stray Kids’ perfect run of No. 1 albums continue, or will Taylor Swift’s blockbuster album, The Life of a Showgirl, finally put an end to the K-Pop octet’s streak?

This is the central question currently thrumming through the music world, and it is the focus of The Contenders, a midweek column dedicated to examining the artists aiming for the Billboard charts’ top spot and the strategies driving their efforts.

Stray Kids’ Undefeated Streak and the Physical Sales Edge

The South Korean pop octet, Stray Kids, are back with DO IT (JYP/Republic), a new five-track mixtape.

For most artists, a short five-track release would pose no credible threat to unseat an album by the biggest pop star in the world, one currently setting records. But Stray Kids are not ‘most artists’ when it comes to the Billboard 200.

Since 2022, the group has launched seven different projects—including albums, EPs, and mixtapes—onto the chart, and every single one of those seven has debuted at No. 1.

The Kids haven’t missed the top spot yet, and they now look to go eight-for-eight with DO IT. The five-track set, which was released last Friday, 21 November, and includes both a regular version and a ‘Festival Version’ of its title track as bookending cuts, has already got off to a strong streaming start.

Each of its four new tracks debuted on Spotify’s Daily Top Songs USA chart, with ‘Do It’ remaining on the listing four days later.

However, as is typically the case with Stray Kids, physical sales are the true engine and will likely provide the biggest chunk of the album’s overall first-week consumption.

The group has strategically made DO IT available in a wide array of formats, including seven CD variants, all featuring collectibles (some randomized), designed specifically to appeal to their dedicated fanbase.

Furthermore, there are four total webstore-exclusive download versions of the mixtape, each adding its own ‘chat’ bonus audio tracks with the bandmembers.

Will this multifaceted approach be enough for the Kids to unseat their Republic labelmate, Taylor Swift? The Life of a Showgirl has reigned for a formidable seven weeks.

In its seventh and most recent week at No. 1, Showgirl amassed 93,000 total equivalent album units. To compare, Stray Kids’ last Billboard 200-topper, September’s full studio album KARMA, bowed with 313,000 units.

While the shorter DO IT might not post numbers quite so robust, if its sales are anywhere near that range—well over triple what Showgirl posted last week—it will be incredibly challenging for Swift to make up the difference.

Wicked: For Good Enters the Fray

Even if Stray Kids were not in the picture, it would still be far from smooth sailing for Swift’s blockbuster album on the Billboard 200 this week. Showgirl also has to compete with perhaps the year’s most-anticipated movie soundtrack (and yet another fellow Republic release): Wicked: For Good — The Soundtrack.

The accompanying OST to the blockbuster film musical sequel debuted on the same Friday as DO IT. It features musical contributions from co-stars Cynthia Erivoand Ariana Grande, as well as cast members Jonathan Bailey, Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum, and more.

The soundtrack has also seen a solid start on DSPs, with a number of songs debuting on the Spotify Daily Top Songs USA chart, most notably Erivo and Grande duetting on the ‘For Good’ title track.

The album is also expected to sell well to the musical’s many obsessive fans. To that end, the release is backed by an impressive array of physical formats: seven vinyl and four CD variants are available for purchase, one of the latter also coming signed by Erivo and Grande.

Does For Good also have a strong chance at a six-digit debut? The original Wicked: The Soundtrack bowed with 139,000 units in December 2024, with 85,000 of that number coming in sales.

This new set may come up a little short, given the original musical’s first half contained some of its more traditionally beloved songs, like ‘Defying Gravity’ and ‘Popular.’

However, this new set does benefit from having a pair of new compositions—the Erivo solo ‘No Place Like Home’ and the Grande solo ‘The Girl in the Bubble’—plus the historic box office bow for the movie it accompanies, not to mention the coming Thanksgiving weekend (and Black Friday sales).

This all suggests that if the album doesn’t get to 100k this week, it may very well still achieve that milestone in week two.

The stage is set for a historic photo finish, a dramatic three-way battle that will determine whether Stray Kids can extend their perfect run or if a formidable pop icon will finally halt their momentum.