Morgan Wallen Reaches 23 Country Airplay No. 1s With "Been by Now"
Morgan Wallen has earned his 23rd No. 1 on Billboard's Country Airplay chart, with "Been by Now" taking the top spot on the chart dated Nov. 7. Billboard reported the milestone on Oct. 30.
The Country Airplay chart ranks country songs by how much they are played on US radio. It is built on audience impressions, the estimated number of listeners who heard a song on the air. Luminate, the data company that tracks the figures, counted 33.5 million impressions for "Been by Now" from Oct. 23 to 29, up 4% on the week before.
It is Wallen's fourth Country Airplay No. 1 of 2026. The earlier three were "20 Cigarettes," "Don't We" and "I Can't Love You Anymore," a duet with Ella Langley. The first two come from his 2025 album, "I'm the Problem." He also had four chart-toppers in 2025 and five in 2024.
That run has produced a record of its own. Wallen is the first act to collect at least four Country Airplay No. 1s in three separate, back-to-back years. Only four other acts have reached four in a single year: Langley, Luke Combs in 2021, and Garth Brooks in 1991 and 1993.
He has also moved quickly. Wallen needed just over eight years to reach 23, counting from his first No. 1, "Up Down," a collaboration with Florida Georgia Line that topped the chart in June 2018. No act has reached 23 faster. Luke Bryan took nearly 10 years to get there.
The chart has been running since 1990, and Wallen now sits behind a small group. Only seven acts have more No. 1s. Kenny Chesney leads with 34, followed by Blake Shelton with 30, Tim McGraw with 29 and Jason Aldean with 27. Luke Bryan, Alan Jackson and George Strait each have 26.
Within this decade alone, "Been by Now" is Wallen's 21st Country Airplay No. 1, seven more than Luke Combs, who is second over the same period.
For a listener, the number is simple to picture. Each No. 1 means a song has been heard on radio across the country enough times, in the week counted, to beat every other country song on the list. Behind every ranking are the stations that play it, the programmers who pick it, and the crews and musicians who travel to shows that the airplay helps fill. The chart dated Nov. 7 will show how "Been by Now" holds up in the weeks that follow.
