In a stunning display of musical dominance, Taylor Swift’s 12th studio album, ‘The Life of a Showgirl,’ has officially achieved the most significant first-week sales in modern music history. According to Luminate, the industry data and analytics firm that has been tracking sales since 1991, the album sold an impressive 4.002 million equivalent album units. This monumental achievement surpasses the previous record set by Adele’s “25,” which sold 3.378 million copies in its first week back in 2015.
Released on October 3rd, ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ saw a staggering 3,479,500 pure album sales within its first week. This release also propels Swift to the top as the solo artist with the most No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 chart, securing her 15th chart-topper, surpassing Drake and Jay-Z, who both have 14.
Swift continues to cement her legacy as a record-breaker. ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ demonstrated its power from day one, selling 2.7 million copies in traditional album sales within its initial 24 hours, shattering her own previous record for first-week sales. The success extends to vinyl sales as well; the album broke the record for the most vinyl albums sold in a single week in the U.S., with 1.2 million copies sold on its first day.
Much of this success can be attributed to Swift’s strategic release of the album in various formats and editions, including multiple Target-exclusive CDs and vinyl releases. These include titles like “It’s Frightening,” “It’s Rapturous,” “It’s Beautiful,” and the vinyl edition “The Crowd Is Your King,” alongside other vinyl variants such as “The Tiny Bubble in Champagne Collection,” “The Baby That’s Show Business Collection,” and “The Shiny Bug Collection.”
The record-breaking sales news follows closely on the heels of Disney announcing two new projects featuring Swift: a six-episode docuseries about her “Eras Tour” titled “Taylor Swift ‘The Eras Tour’ The End of an Era,” with the first two episodes premiering on December 12th, and a concert film that now includes her “Tortured Poets Department” set, filmed in Vancouver.