For nearly a full decade, Adele has held the record for most first-week sales for an album. In December 2015, her grand comeback 25 sold 3.482 million equivalent album units. Few artists have come close to breaking the record. Now, Taylor Swift has broken it.
According to Billboard, Swift has already earned 3.5 million equivalent album units for The Life of a Showgirl. Released on Friday, Oct. 3, the record is still in its first tracking week. Its final first-week count will be announced on Sunday, Oct. 12, the outlet said, giving it a few more days to widen the close gap in sales.
For reference, The Tortured Poets Department debuted with 2.61 million equivalent album units, making it the second-highest week since 25. 1989 (Taylor’s Version) opened with 1.653 million, Midnights with 1.578 million, and Reputation with 1.238. After that, Adele holds two more non-debut weeks for 25, which surged in its second week in December 2015 and again in January 2016. Swift rounds out the list with Lover and Folklore in the company of Drake’s Views.
The Life of a Showgirl has sold 3.2 million copies in traditional formats, including physical and digital purchases. This approaches, but has not yet surpassed, the record that Adele set with 3.387 million copies of 25 sold in 2015.
Swift’s physical boost comes courtesy of the multiple variations of The Life of a Showgirl she premiered in the lead-up to the album release. There are CD variant versions titled “Sweat and Vanilla Perfume,” “It’s Frightening,” “It’s Rapturous,” and “It’s Beautiful,” plus vinyl variant versions titled “The Shiny Bug,” “Baby, That’s Show Business,” “Tiny Bubbles in Champagne,” and “The Crowd Is Your King.”
Swift also launched four CD releases — titled the “Alone in My Tower Acoustic Version,” “Dressing Room Rehearsal Version,” “The Life Is a Song Acoustic Version,” and “So Glamorous Cabaret Version” — that include acoustic renditions and songwriting voice memos from select songs from the album. The “Dressing Room Rehearsal Version” and “Alone in My Tower Acoustic Version” were also made available in deluxe formats.
A number of the variants were made available for 24 hours only.
On the streaming front, The Life of a Showgirl broke the Spotify record for most streamed album in a day within 12 hours of its release. In the preceding days, the streaming service announced that the album received 5.5 million pre-saves in anticipation of its arrival, breaking her own record.
The tracking week for The Life of a Showgirl will close on Thursday, Oct. 9.
