Taylor Swift claims her ninth album to reach 2 million in U.S. sales, as 1989 (Taylor’s Version) surpassed the threshold in the week ending Jan. 11. According to data tracking firm Luminate, the album sold 17,000 copies that week, uppping its total sales figure since its release in October to 2.014 million. (Sales are traditional album purchases – inclusive of all physical configurations [CD, vinyl, cassette] and digital album downloads.)
1989 (Taylor’s Version) is the only album released in 2023 to have sold 2 million copies in the U.S. — it’s also the only album to have surpassed 1 million copies in 2023 (It cleared the million-mark in its debut week, ending Nov. 2.) The last-released album to cross both marks was Swift’s own Midnights, which was released in October of 2022. Midnights sold more than a million copies in its first week, and then reached the 2 million-mark in February of 2023.
Here’s a recap of Swift’s nine albums that have sold at least 2 million copies each, ranked by largest total sales: Fearless (7.285 million), 1989 (6.472 million), her self-titled album (5.871 million), Speak Now (4.817 million), Red (4.582 million), Midnights (2.814 million), Reputation (2.478 million), Folklore (2.289 million) and 1989 (Taylor’s Version) (2.014 million).
Swift has four more albums that have sold at least 1 million each, lifting her sum of million-selling albums to a lucky 13.
Swift’s continued strong sales should come as no surprise, as she was the year’s top-selling act in the U.S., by album sales, in each of the last five years (2019-23). And, she’s done so while an increasing number of music fans have adopted streaming as a primary means of music consumption. Swift, like many acts, has leaned in to creating additional versions of an album for purchase by superfans, which helps increase sales figures. Her albums sold spectacularly on vinyl as well, and was the configuration’s top-seller in 2023 when she accounted for one of every 15 vinyl albums sold.
On Billboard’s latest Top Album Sales chart (dated Jan. 20), 1989 (Taylor’s Version) spends a sixth non-consecutive week at No. 1, with its 17,000 copies sold (down 28%). Swift has a total of seven albums in the top 10, as 1989 (Taylor’s Version) is joined by six other former Swift leaders in the region. She ties her own record for the most concurrent titles in the top 10 by a single act.
Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
Swift’s other six titles in the Jan. 20-dated top 10 on Top Album Sales are: Midnights (rising 3-2 with 11,000; down 14%), Folklore (4-3 with 10,000; down 21%), Lover (6-5 with 9,000; down 25%), Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) (8-6 with 7,000; down 30%), Evermore (5-7 with nearly 7,000; down 47%) and Red (Taylor’s Version) (14-10 with nearly 6,000; down 18%).
As for the non-Swift titles in the top 10, they are: Stray Kids’ former No. 1 ROCK-STAR (falling 2-4 with a little over 9,000; down 39%), Olivia Rodrigo’s chart-topping Guts (7-8 with 6,000; down 41%) and ATEEZ’s The World EP.Fin: Will (holding at No. 9 with nearly 6,000; down 34%).
In the week ending Jan. 11, there were 1.195 million albums sold in the U.S. (down 15.6% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 936,000 (down 17.7%) and digital albums comprised 259,000 (down 6.8%).
There were 439,000 CD albums sold in the week ending Jan. 11 (down 13.6 week-over-week) and 492,000 vinyl albums sold (down 21.1%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 946,000 (down 25.5% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 1.117 million (down 44%).
Overall year-to-date album sales total 2.611 million (down 34.1% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 2.073 million (down 36.9%) and digital album sales total 538,000 (down 20.4%).
Read more
