Taylor Swift hit a historic 4 million in sales in one week with the debut of her 12th studio album “The Life of a Showgirl.” This marks the singer’s 15th No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 albums chart.
Per Billboard, “The Life of a Showgirl” debuted with 4.002 million equivalent album units, which includes pure album sales and streams in the U.S. for the week ending Thursday (Oct. 9). Album sales in total came out to 3,479,500.
“The Life of a Showgirl” debuted on Oct. 3 and breaks the tie between Drake and Jay-Z held for having the most No. 1 albums for a solo artist, and is also now the solo project with the second-most No. 1s, a feat The Beatles still lead with 19.
On Oct. 8, Swift broke Adele’s record for “25,” with the highest combined sales and streaming consumption numbers, after “The Life of a Showgirl” moved over 3.5 million units in five days on Oct. 8. “25” held the No. 1 spot for nearly 10 years.
As TheWrap previously reported, Swift has surpassed her own, previous first-week record, which was set in 2024 by “The Tortured Poets Department.” That record accumulated a combined 2.61 million sales and equivalent album units in its debut week. Last week, Swift also captured the No. 1 spot at the U.S. box office with the release of “Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl,” her in-theater album tie-in event that raked in $33 million in its three-day run.
Before “The Life of a Showgirl” was even released, the album had also already set the record for the most pre-saves of a single album in Spotify history. Its record-breaking numbers continue to create a stark contrast between the album’s commercial performance and the divided online reactions it has provoked.
