Taylor Swift surprise-released “Patient Zero” on September 25 as the lead single from The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore deluxe edition, co-written and produced with Max Martin and Shellback. The track logged 13.7 million global Spotify streams on day one, setting the 2026 record for a female artist in a single day and briefly topping the platform’s global chart, though streams fell roughly 59 percent the next day to about 5.5 million. The music video, featuring Colin Farrell and Dakota Johnson, premiered at the September 27 VMAs, providing a key mid-week catalyst during the first-week tracking window that closes October 1. Traders are weighing the original album’s historic streaming benchmarks against the Encore’s softer critical reception and the song’s rapid post-debut decline.