CHART FINAL: SWIFT, SZA START 2023 WITH A BUZZER-BEATER

The first HITS Top 50 of 2023 went down to the wire as we're projecting Taylor Swift's Midnights (Republic) will beat SZA's SOS (TDE/RCA) by a hair for #1. Swift's late-week surge in digital sales was enough to end SZA's three-week run atop the chart.

As always with a race so tight—the competitors are separated by a mere 200 units—expect a greater margin of error. We have Midnights at 124.6k and SOS finishing with 124.4k.

Swift and SZA's critically acclaimed albums, which have held #1 or #2 the past four weeks, have been maintaining weekly activity above 100k well past their release dates (10/21 for Midnights, 12/9 for SOS). It's a great start to the year and hopefully a sign of a changing tide after male-dominated 2022 chart action.

Republic has four of the top six titles on the year's premiere album chart as Metro Boomin's Heroes & Villains (Boominati Worldwide) jumps to #3, followed by Drake & 21 Savage's Her Loss (OVO) at #4 and Mercury/Big Loud's Morgan Wallen at #6.

Streeting this week are new titles from Motown's YoungBoy Never Broke Again and EMPIRE's French Montana. See the full chart while we grab a drink and research what this whole "dry January" thing is about.