Tate McRae has come out on top … in a way. The singer’s first single of the year, “Housewife” debuted at Number Two on Billboard‘s Hot 100 with 22.9 million streams, 12.7 million in airplay audience, and 4,000 units sold in its first full tracking week, coming in right behind Ella Langley’s unstoppable hit “Choosin’ Texas.” McRae may not have reached the top slot on the chart, but she was the winner in a tight five-way race between other major artists, including Olivia Rodrigo and Chappell Roan, Taylor Swift, and Zach Bryan and Lana Del Rey, who released new songs on Oct. 18.
A couple of weeks ago, Rodrigo released her “Expectations” remix with Chappell Roan. That same day, Swift dropped acoustic versions of her latest single “Patient Zero,” which debuted at Number One earlier this month. Zach Bryan and Lana Del Rey shared their highly anticipated collaboration “Lies” on Oct. 16 as well.
McRae’s “Housewife” marks the singer’s first release of 2026 — and her highest-charting song as a lead artist on the chart. Her feat comes after online pop music fans zeroed in on early predictions of the chart, which showed the Canadian singer, Swift, Rodrigo with Chappell Roan, and Bryan with Del Rey, all zeroing in on Number Two, separated only by a couple of points. By midweek, McRae’s “Housewife” had surged in points after the track took the top spot on Spotify’s Global chart.
Unsurprisingly, Rodrigo and Roan, Bryan and Del Rey, and Swift all round out the Top Five of the Hot 100. Rodrigo’s “Expectations” remix notched Number Three with 18.2 million streams, 2.6 million in radio reach, 4,000 downloads sold, and 15,000 in first-week physical sales. The track helped her latest album You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So In Love top Billboard’s 200 album chart for a third nonconsecutive week. Bryan and Del Rey’s soulful ballad debuted at Number Four with 19.6 million streams and 5,000 sold. Finally, Swift’s latest version of “Patient Zero” rounds out the Top Five with 26,000 in physical sales and 4,000 in downloads. The week’s chart didn’t just make for an interesting tie fueled by pop stans, it also marked some much-needed variance on the chart. For the first time since March 23, 2025, multiple songs by different artists debuted in the Top Five.
