Taylor Swift’s “august” ranked number 24 on Billboard’s 2020 year-end Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart.
The year-end list summarizes a song’s performance across the chart year rather than identifying its highest weekly position. “august” had a weekly peak of number five and spent 20 weeks on the genre chart after Folklore’s July 2020 release.
That distinction explains why the year-end position is number 24 instead of number five. A peak measures the best single week, while a year-end ranking reflects sustained chart activity over the relevant period.
The track’s later annual August resurgence occurred after this 2020 year-end ranking. Its recurring streams helped turn a Folklore album track into a seasonal catalog favorite, but the year-end statistic belongs specifically to its original 2020 chart campaign.