TOP 20 UPDATE: BATTER UP

UPDATE: In probably the least surprising development ever…

Taylor Swift's THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT (Republic) leapfrogs our initial estimates for Zach Bryan's The Great American Bar Scene (Warner) and will log a 12th consecutive week at #1. Yesterday, with incomplete post-holiday info, we had given the edge for #1 to Bryan. However, updated D2C shipments now put TTPD's projected album sales at 73k, giving Swift around 142k in total activity.

After debuting in last week's Top 20 with one day of sales and streams, The Great American Bar Scene will move into the #2 slot in its first full week.

In the words of Yankees’ Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra, "It ain’t over 'til it's over." And this week’s race for #1 may be far from over.

At midweek, Warner’s Zach Bryan takes the lead with The Great American Bar Scene, while, after 11 consecutive weeks at #1, Taylor Swift’s THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT (Republic) may actually drop to the runner-up position.

Swift’s total includes sales from the seven D2C variants that were briefly available on Sunday. While that doesn’t appear to be enough to lift TTPD over Bryan, could Swift have another digital offer on deck for later in the week? Don’t look for this matchup to be decided until the bottom of the ninth.

Meanwhile, Opium/Interscope’s Ken Carson scores the only new entry this week, A Great Chaos, at #17.

Now, if you’ll excuse us, we’re gonna go brush up on our baseball phraseology some more.