Taylor Swift earns 11th No. 1 album debut with “Midnights”.
The first week numbers for Taylor Swift’s new album “Midnights” are here, and the project earned her 11th top debut on the Billboard 200 chart. As projected, the album moved a record-breaking 1,578,000 equivalent units in the first week, with a huge 1,140,000 copies moved from pure sales.
Billboard 200: #1(new) @taylorswift13, Midnights 1,578,000 [549.26 million on-demand streams | 1,140,000 pure sales].
— chart data (@chartdata) October 30, 2022
This is the biggest album debut on US Billboard Charts in 7 years, following Adele’s 2015 project “25”, which was the biggest-ever charted album with 3.482 million units in the first week. It is also the largest album sales since Swift’s own project “Reputation” in 2017.
Highest US 1st Week Sales since ’91
3.38m – Adele – 25 (2015)
2.42m – NSYNC – No Strings.. (2000)
1.88m – NSYNC – Celebrity (2001)
1.76m – Eminem – MMLP (2000)
1.59m – Backstreet Boys – B&B (2000)
1.54m – Taylor Swift – Midnights (2022)
1.32m – Eminem – TES (2002)Taylor GOATED
— Hip Hop By The Numbers (@HipHopNumbers) October 29, 2022
Taylor Swift’s “Midnights” Breaks Spotify Record For Biggest Album Debut
Taylor Swift now becomes the sixth artist in history to have more than 10 #1 projects, joining Beatles, Drake, Jay-Z, Bruce Springsteen, and Streisand. She also ties Bruce Springsteen for the most #1 albums among female musicians. Taylor also becomes the first and only artist to earn more than 1 million sales week with five different albums, which includes Midnights, reputation, 1989, Red, and Speak Now.
With the sale of 575,000 vinyl LPs of “Midnights,” Swift set a new record for vinyl sales in the United States during a single week. (In contrast, Harry Styles’ “Harry’s House” sold 182,000 copies in its first week, making it the #1 vinyl seller.)
Swift not only records the greatest streaming week for a woman’s album and a non-R&B/hip-hop album, but also the third-best week for an album in terms of total on-demand official streams (549.26 million).
