Taylor Swift’s Midnights Becomes Her 11th #1, Most Sales For An Album In Seven Years
Taylor Swift’s Midnights had the highest sales week for an album in almost 7 years, landing in the top spot of the Billboard 200 chart with 1.578 million equivalent album units. As Billboard notes, it’s the largest week for an album since 2015, when Adele beat the one-week US album sales record in 2015 by moving 3.482 million units. It’s also the biggest sales week for an album since Swift’s Reputation, which had 1.216 million units in 2017.
Midnights is Swift’s 11th #1 album overall, and she now ties Barbra Streisand for the record of most #1 albums made by women. She’s the sixth act with more than 10 #1 albums on the chart, beaten out by the Beatles (19), Jay-Z (14), and Drake, Bruce Springsteen, and Streisand (all with 11). Swift now has five different albums that have reached the million-plus mark since Billboard started tracking music sales in 1991, extending her lead over Backstreet Boys, Eminem, and *NSYNC, who all have two.
Swift has also set a new modern-era vinyl sales record, moving 575,000 copies this week. It’s the largest week for an album on vinyl since tracking began again in 1991. The previous record-holder was Harry Styles’ Harry’s House, which came out earlier this year and sold 182,000 copies. She also sold 395,000 CDs, and had the third-biggest streaming week ever behind Drake’s Scorpion and Certified Lover Boy. Midnights earned 1.140 million album sales, 419,000 streaming equivalent album units, and 19,000 track equivalent album units.
It’s expected that Swift might set some records over on the Hot 100, as well. Stay tuned for that when that chart is released tomorrow…