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The Life of a Showgirl sold 3,479,500 copies in pure album sales in its first week (purchases of digital downloads, CDs, vinyl LPs and cassette tapes). That is the single largest sales week for an album since 1991, when Luminate began electronically tracking music sales. The album sold 2.7 million on its first day, a figure that was likely driven by a significant number of pre-orders for the physical album shipped to customers for arrival on release day, as well as pre-orders of the digital download album that were redeemed on release day.
The first-week sales of The Life of a Showgirl were powered by its availability across 38 versions of the album over its first week. There were 27 physical editions and 11 digital download editions. Of the physical editions, there were 16 CDs, two deluxe CD boxed sets containing branded clothing and a CD, eight vinyl LPs and one cassette.
Swift’s webstore exclusively sold 10 of the CD editions (four deluxe editions in premium packaging containing a collectible charm and photo cards, four signed editions, and two deluxe boxed sets containing branded clothing and a CD). Most of the editions exclusive to Swift’s webstore were sold for limited windows of time since the preorder launch in August. Target had an exclusive CD, and there was one widely available standard CD. Plus, there were four CD variants with bonus tracks that were launched during street week and initially exclusively sold in Swift’s webstore, but then became available at indie record stores.
As for the vinyl and cassette editions, Swift’s webstore exclusively sold seven vinyl LPs and the one cassette. Target also had one exclusive vinyl LP.
Finally, on the digital download side, there were 11 versions to purchase. There were clean and explicit versions each of the widely available standard album, the iTunes-exclusive edition with a bonus video, and the track-by-track commentary edition. There were also four iTunes-exclusive versions with bonus tracks, and a version with bonus tracks exclusively sold via Swift’s webstore. Most of the download versions launched after the album’s release day; only the widely available standard album and the iTunes-exclusive version with a bonus video were available on street date.
The Life of a Showgirl is the eighth Swift album to have sold at least 1 million copies in a single week, following the debuts of The Tortured Poets Department, 1989 (Taylor’s Version), Midnights, reputation, the original 1989, Red and Speak Now. She is the only act with eight different albums to each sell at least 1 million copies in a single week in the modern era. In total, there have been 27 instances – by 25 different albums — in which an album sold at least 1 million copies in a week in the modern era. One of those albums, Adele’s 25, sold more than 1 million in three separate weeks.
Five of the top 10 million-selling weeks occurred in the early 2000s, in the pre-digital and pre-streaming heyday of the CD, when essentially the only way to listen to an album on-demand was by purchasing an album. The year 2000 was the highwater mark in the modern era for album sales, when 785 million albums were sold in the U.S. Comparably, in 2025 year-to-date through Oct. 2, album sales stood at 62.43 million, with nearly half of that figure (30 million) driven by purchases of vinyl LPs.
Here’s a recap of the top 10 biggest-selling weeks by albums in the modern era (1991-present), ranked in order by sales volume.
Rank, Artist, Title, Sales, Chart Date
1, Taylor Swift, The Life of a Showgirl, 3,479,500, Oct. 18, 2025
2, Adele, 25, 3.378 million, Dec. 12, 2015
3, *NSYNC, No Strings Attached, 2.416 million, April 8, 2000
4, Taylor Swift, The Tortured Poets Department, 1.914 million, May 4, 2024
5, *NSYNC, Celebrity, 1.880 million, Aug. 11, 2001
6, Eminem, The Marshall Mathers LP, 1.760 million, June 10, 2000
7, Backstreet Boys, Black & Blue, 1.591 million, Dec. 9, 2000
8, Taylor Swift, 1989 (Taylor’s Version), 1.359 million, Nov. 11, 2023
9, Eminem, The Eminem Show, 1.322 million, June 15, 2002*
10, Britney Spears, Oops! …I Did It Again, 1.319 million, June 3, 2000
(Sales source: Luminate. *All weeks are debuts, except for The Eminem Show, which debuted on the chart dated June 8, 2002, from a partial week of sales due to an off-cycle early release. The June 15, 2002, chart reflected the album’s first week of availability.)
