Miley Cyrus has made Billboard history for an unexpected reason. Just one week after “Bass Persuades” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, the album has fallen to No. 157, setting a new record for the biggest second-week drop ever for an album that entered the chart at the top. The dramatic fall comes just as Cyrus prepares for two sold-out Hollywood Bowl shows.

Miley Cyrus has just made Billboard history for a reason few artists would want. One week after “Bass Persuades” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, the album has dropped all the way to No. 157, setting a new record for the biggest second-week fall ever for an album that entered the chart at the top.

The drop had already started attracting attention when Billboard revealed its new Top 10 and “Bass Persuades” was nowhere to be found. Once the full Billboard 200 appeared, the scale of the fall became clear. Miley Cyrus had gone from the highest possible position to No. 157 in a single week, creating an unusually dramatic chart story around an album that had only just celebrated a major career milestone.

The key detail is that this record applies specifically to albums that debuted at No. 1 and then fell in their second chart week. That is what separates “Bass Persuades” from other famous chart collapses that may look bigger on paper but happened under very different circumstances.

Some reports initially compared Miley Cyrus to Bon Jovi’s “This House Is Not for Sale,” which once fell from No. 1 to No. 169. The numbers suggest a steeper decline, but the comparison is misleading because that album was already two years old when it returned to No. 1.

Bon Jovi’s album originally arrived in 2016, debuted at the top and then dropped to No. 43 in week two. Its later return to No. 1 happened in 2018 through a concert-ticket bundling strategy that counted redeemed album copies toward chart units. That practice was later banned, and the album’s second major fall was not the same kind of debut-week-to-week-two collapse now attached to Miley Cyrus.

Travis Scott provides another strange comparison. His mixtape “Days Before Rodeo” went from No. 1 to completely off the Billboard 200, which sounds even more dramatic. But again, it was not a fresh album launch in the normal sense. The project was already a decade old when its 10th-anniversary campaign pushed it back into the spotlight.

The mixtape finally reached streaming platforms in 2024 and initially climbed only as high as No. 106. It then suddenly jumped to No. 1 after long-awaited vinyl orders began shipping. Once that one-time wave of physical sales passed, the record disappeared from the chart just as quickly. The circumstances were unusual enough that the comparison with “Bass Persuades” does not really match.

There is even an older example involving Elvis Presley. “Elvis’ Christmas Album” once moved from No. 1 to off the chart entirely, but that happened in the 1950s, when Billboard’s album chart had only 25 positions. A holiday album disappearing after Christmas was also a completely different kind of chart behavior from a modern album falling out of a 200-title ranking.

That is why the second-week result for Miley Cyrus stands on its own. “Bass Persuades” was a brand-new studio album, it debuted at No. 1, and one week later it landed at No. 157. Within that specific chart context, the fall is unprecedented.

The result also creates a strange contrast with the way the album opened. Reaching No. 1 was itself a notable moment for Miley Cyrus, giving her a major Billboard 200 victory more than a decade after “Bangerz” last topped the chart in 2013. The first week looked like a clear commercial win. The second week completely changed the conversation.

One possible factor is the absence of a huge single carrying the album through its release cycle. The title track “Bass Persuades” reached No. 35 on the Billboard Hot 100 before the album arrived. That is still a respectable chart position, but it did not become the kind of massive hit that can keep a new album high once the first-week rush fades.

There was also some discussion around expectations created by the title track and the album name. Early reactions suggested that some fans expected a stronger dance-pop direction, while reviews later noted that the full project was not nearly as focused on that sound as the title might suggest.

That mismatch does not automatically explain the chart drop, but it may have affected how the album connected beyond the most dedicated Miley Cyrus audience. A No. 1 debut can be powered by loyal fans, pre-orders and concentrated release-week activity. Staying near the top usually requires a wider level of continued listening.

Miley Cyrus has already moved on to the next phase of the campaign. She recently released a music video for “Different Religion,” giving the album another track to push after the title song. Whether that helps “Bass Persuades” stabilize or return higher on the chart will become clearer over the coming weeks.

The second-week drop is also a reminder that a No. 1 debut does not always tell the full story of an album’s commercial life. Modern chart performance can be extremely front-loaded, especially when an artist has a large fan base ready to stream, buy and support a project immediately.

For Miley Cyrus, that effect appears to have been especially strong. The album had enough opening-week power to reach the top, but the follow-up week showed a steep decline once the initial excitement cooled. That contrast is exactly why the fall has become a record rather than just another bad second week.

Still, the chart number does not mean there is no demand around the era. Miley Cyrus is preparing for two rare live dates at the Hollywood Bowl on October 16 and 18, with promotion suggesting that the shows were designed around performing “Bass Persuades” live.

Both Hollywood Bowl concerts sold out within 10 minutes of going on sale three weeks earlier. That gives the campaign a very different kind of success away from the Billboard 200 and shows that audience interest in seeing Miley Cyrus live remains strong even as the album’s chart position drops sharply.

The contrast is difficult to miss. On one side, “Bass Persuades” has just suffered the steepest week-two decline ever recorded for an album that debuted at No. 1. On the other, Miley Cyrus can still sell out two major Hollywood Bowl shows almost instantly.

That split between chart longevity and live demand is part of what makes the story more interesting than a simple flop headline. Albums can perform differently across streaming, physical sales, touring and fan engagement, and a huge drop on one chart does not erase strength in other parts of an artist’s career.

At the same time, the Billboard result is still historically significant. There is no need to soften what happened. “Bass Persuades” fell from No. 1 to No. 157 in its second week, and that is the biggest drop ever for a newly released album that started at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.

For Miley Cyrus, the record arrives only days after celebrating the exact opposite kind of chart milestone. The album first marked her return to No. 1 after more than a decade. Now it has produced one of the most dramatic reversals ever seen on the chart.

The next few weeks will show whether “Different Religion,” the Hollywood Bowl dates and continued promotion can give the album a second wind. For now, though, the numbers tell a very unusual story: “Bass Persuades” opened at the very top, then fell 156 places in one week, turning Miley Cyrus’ latest era into one of the most surprising Billboard stories of 2026.