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Taylor Swift Has Biggest First Week in Music History

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Melody Bot, Oct 14, 2025 at 8:02 AM.

  1. Melody Bot

    Your friendly little forum bot. Staff Member

    This article has been imported from chorus.fm for discussion. All of the forum rules still apply.

    Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl sold many, many albums. The press release can be found below.

    Taylor Swift’s 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, earns the biggest first week in music history with over 4 million U.S. and 5.5 million global album-equivalent units. Upon release, the album shattered countless records and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, marking another historic milestone in Swift’s career. Dominating across all platforms, The Life of a Showgirl amassed more than 1.5 billion global streams, securing the largest debut of 2025.
     
    Taylor Swift commented, “I’ll never forget how excited I was in 2006 when my first album sold 40,000 copies in its first week. I was 16 and couldn’t even fathom that that many people would care enough about my music to invest their time and energy into it. Since then I’ve tried to meet and thank as many people as I could who have given me the chance to chase this insane dream. Here we are all these years later and a hundred times that many people showed up for me this week. I have 4 million thank you’s I want to send to the fans, and 4 million reasons to feel even more proud of this album than I already was. Thank you for going out to celebrate this project in the movie theaters, investing in vinyl, streaming, watching the video, buying CDs, reading the poems I wrote inside the packaging, and immersing yourselves in The Life of a Showgirl. I’ll cherish this feeling forever.”
     
    See below for other key highlights and listen to The Life of a Showgirl - HERE.
    
    Billboard 200 Achievements
    ●       The Life of a Showgirl posts the largest sales week for any album in US music history.
    ●       Marks Swift’s 15th No. 1 album, breaking the record for the most No. 1 albums in the 21st century.
    ●       Sets the record for the most No. 1 albums by a solo artist.
    ●       Extends her record as the female artist with the most No. 1 albums in Billboard 200history.
    ●       Continues her streak of 11 consecutive studio albums debuting at No. 1, beginning with Fearless (2008). Including four “Taylor’s Version” re-recordings, Swift has now achieved 15 consecutive No. 1 debuts.
    ●       With this release, Swift reaches her 87th week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, extending her records for:
    ○       Most weeks at No. 1 in the 21st century
    ○       Most weeks at No. 1 by a solo artist in history
    ○       Most weeks at No. 1 by a female artist in history
     
    Billboard Hot 100 Achievements
    ●        “The Fate of Ophelia”
    ○        13th #1 single on the Hot 100
    ○        Ties for fourth most #1 hits in chart history
    ○        Third most for a female artist
    ○        Ties for second most #1 hits in the 21st century 
    ○        Ties as the only soloist to have 13 #1 singles and 13 #1 albums
    ●        Album
    ○        First album in history with all its songs appearing uninterrupted from #1 through #12
    ●        Joins Taylor’s ‘Midnights’ and ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ as the only albums in history to produce #1 through #10 on the Billboard Hot 100
     
    Vinyl Records
    ●       The Life of a Showgirl earned the largest vinyl sales week in Nielsen history, surpassing 1 million units sold - the first album ever to achieve this milestone.
     
    Streaming Records
    ●       Spotify:
    ○       “The Fate of Ophelia” set the record for the most daily and weekly streams of any song in Spotify history.
    ○       The album achieved the largest standard edition debut in Spotify history with 250 million streams.
    ○       Swift now holds the top 19 biggest song debuts and the top 4 biggest album debuts in Spotify history.
    ○       “The Fate of Ophelia” also became the fastest song to surpass 100 million streams.
    ○       Swift is now the only artist to simultaneously hold the platform’s top single-day and weekly records across song, album, and artist categories.
    ○       Taylor Swift holds the top 4 biggest album debuts in Spotify history
    ○       “The Fate of Ophelia” fastest song to surpass 100 million streams in Spotify history
    ○       Taylor Swift now holds top song, album and artist single day and weekly records on platform
    ○       Taylor Swift now holds top 3 fastest albums to 1 Billion on Spotify
    ○       “Opalite” fastest non-single to reach 100 million streams in Spotify history
     
    ●       Apple:
    ○       The Life of a Showgirl posted the largest iTunes and Apple Music debuts of 2025.
    ○       “The Fate of Ophelia” posted the largest Apple Music debut of 2025.
     
    ●       Amazon:
    ○       The album achieved the largest debut in Amazon Music history.
     
    Global Performance
    ●        #1 Debuts reported as of Sunday
    ○        #1 UK
    ○        #1 Australia
    ○        #1 Canada
    ○        #1 Germany
    ○        #1 France
    ○        #1 Austria
    ○        #1 Belgium
    ○        #1 Denmark
    ○        #1 Finland
    ○        #1 Ireland
    ○        #1 Italy
    ○        #1 Netherlands
    ○        #1 New Zealand  
    ○        #1 Norway
    ○        #1 Portugal
    ○        #1 Spain
    ○        #1 Sweden
    ○        #1 Switzerland
     
    ●        UK
    ○        With 423k sold, The Life of a Showgirl surpasses The Tortured Poets Department, as the biggest debut since 2017
    ○        Taylor is the first artist in history to consecutively hold the #1 album,  #1, #2, #3 singles, and #1 airplay song in the UK
    ○        Taylor is officially the international artist with the most No.1 albums in UK chart history (14)
    ○        The Life of a Showgirl is the biggest selling week one album by an international act in UK chart history
    ○        ‘The Fate Of Ophelia’ biggest Week 1 streams by an international artist ever
    ○        ‘The Fate of Ophelia’, ‘Opalite’ and ‘Elizabeth Taylor’ 3 biggest Week 1 singles sales of 2025 in the UK
     
    ●        Australia
    ○        The Life of a Showgirl debuts with the biggest week one sales since 2015
    ○        Taylor Swift extends her record for most #1 albums by a female artist in Australian history (14), and ties for the most #1 albums for an International artist (14)
    ○        Taylor Swift extends her previous record as the only artist to hold the #1 album and #1 single simultaneously, now for the 8th time.  
    ○        The Life of a Showgirl breaks record for biggest streaming week in Australian history
    ○        Taylor Swift becomes first artist to capture the entire Top 12 on the Official Singles Chart in Australian history
     
    ●        Germany
    ○        The Life of a Showgirl debuts #1 in Germany with the highest grossing week for an international solo artist since the current German chart (GFK) launched 25 years ago
    ○        First International Artist to ever debut at #1 on both the Album and Singles charts
    ○        First artist to ever land 8 singles in the Top 10
    ○        Biggest weekly vinyl sales in German chart history
     
    ●        Canada
    ○        The Life of a Showgirl is the biggest album debut in Canada (of the modern streaming era) and the biggest album debut in Canada since 2015
    ○        Taylor Swift now holds the Top 5 highest album debuts (of the modern streaming era)  
    ○        This is Taylor Swift’s 15th #1 album in Canada. She is now tied for the most #1 albums of all-time in this country and is the only non-Canadian artist to reach this milestone in this country
    ○        “The Fate of Ophelia” becomes the most streamed song in a single day and a single week in Canadian History
    ○        The 12 songs on The Life of a Showgirl capture the top 12 spots on the Billboard Canada Song Consumption Chart
     
    ●        France
    ○        The Life of a Showgirl debuts as the biggest selling English-language album since 2015
     
    ●        Austria
    ○        The Life of a Showgirl debuts at #1 and singles at #1, #2 and #3 single - the first non-GSA artist in history to consecutively hold the #1 album, and #1, #2, #3 singles, in Austria
     
    ●        Ireland
    ○        The Life of a Showgirl debuts with the biggest week one sales since 2017
    ○        Taylor Swift has the most #1 albums in Irish history
    ○        Taylor Swift is the only artist to consecutively hold the #1 album, and #1, #2, #3 singles, this decade
     
    ●        Italy
    ○        The Life of a Showgirl is the biggest selling debut by an international act in Italian chart history
    ○        The Life of a Showgirl is the biggest selling debut by any female artist (Domestic and International) in Italian chart history
     
    ●        Netherlands
    ○        The Life of a Showgirl debuts with the biggest week one sales since 2015
     
    ●        New Zealand
    ○        Taylor’s 15th #1, extending her record with the most #1 albums in the market.
    ○        The Life of a Showgirl debuts with the biggest week one sales since 2017
     
    ●        Sweden
    ○        The Life of a Showgirl debut’s #1, surpassing The Tortured Poets Departmentas the biggest debut ever by an international artist
     
    ●        Switzerland
    ○         The Life of a Showgirl debuts at #1 and singles at #1, #2 and #3 single
    more

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  2. Frank Lapidus

    Regular Supporter

    Do the sales of all the different variants count towards the total sales record?
     
  3. oakhurst

    Trusted Supporter

    Yeah. Any and all variants for the vinyl and cd sold count.
     
  4. Shinfo13

    Newbie

    I read somewhere the other day that there are already 34 different variants of the album across cds and vinyl

    And they also discounted the album to $5 on ITunes
     
    CMilliken likes this.
  5. David Falcone

    i do not exist.

    Very impressive for a very mid album.
     
  6. Ska Senanake

    Trusted

    Green Wood
     
  7. brothemighty

    Trusted

    Queen of the Monoculture