Six of the seven songs with the most weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100 came in the streaming era
"Choosin' Texas" by Ella Langley spent 24 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, not all of them consecutive, between the charts dated Feb. 14 and Oct. 3. Taylor Swift's "Patient Zero" ended the run when it debuted at No. 1 on this week's chart. The previous high was 22 weeks for Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You," which collected its weeks over the holiday seasons from 2019 to 2025.
The songs with the most weeks at No. 1 are recent
Billboard began counting YouTube views and fuller streaming data in February 2013. Of the seven songs that have spent 16 or more weeks at No. 1, six first reached the top spot after that change, and all four with 19 weeks or more did. The exception is "One Sweet Day" by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men, which spent 16 weeks at No. 1 in 1995 and 1996. Three of the top seven, "Choosin' Texas," Shaboozey's "A Bar Song (Tipsy)" and Morgan Wallen's "Last Night," are country songs.
Streaming isn't the whole explanation
If streaming simply made hits last longer, the typical No. 1 would also stay longer, and it doesn't. Songs that first reached No. 1 from 1992 to 2012 averaged 4.24 weeks there, and songs since 2013 have averaged 4.11. The bigger break came in November 1991, when Billboard switched to scanned sales and monitored airplay, and average run length nearly doubled from the 2.29 weeks of 1958 to 1991.
Songs that stay at No. 1 for months are more common, too
What streaming has changed is the number of songs that stay at the top for months. Only 2 of 762 No. 1 songs before 1992 lasted 10 weeks or more. From 1992 to 2012 that was 24 of 259, about 9%, and since 2013 it has been 23 of 174, about 13%.
What's next
"All I Want for Christmas Is You" returns to the chart every December and has reached No. 1 in each of the last several holiday seasons, so it may add to its 22 weeks this year. "Patient Zero" will show whether a streaming-era debut can hold the top spot the way "Choosin' Texas" did.
How we counted: weekly Hot 100 No. 1s from Aug. 4, 1958 to Oct. 10, 2026 (1,195 songs, 3,558 charts) from a public archive of Billboard's charts, checked against press reports for recent weeks. Each song's weeks are credited to the year it first reached No. 1. "Streaming era" means a first week at No. 1 in 2013 or later.