Taylor Swift defeats Adele: 'Showgirl' shatters single-week album sales record
What's the story
Taylor Swift's latest album, The Life of a Showgirl, has reportedly broken the record for the largest week by equivalent album units. The album has sold 3.5 million equivalent album units in the US since its release on October 3, per initial reports from data tracking firm Luminate. Of this total, traditional album sales (physical and digital) account for 3.2 million copies, while the remaining 3,00,000 are from streaming activity.
Sales surge
'The Life of a Showgirl' inches closer to this record
With 3.2 million copies sold, The Life of a Showgirl is getting closer to the record for the largest sales week for an album in the modern era (since 1991 when Luminate started electronically tracking music purchases). The modern-era single-week sales record is held by Adele's 25, which debuted with 3.378 million copies sold in its first week in 2015.
New milestone
Swift sets new record with 'Showgirl'
Despite not surpassing Adele's 25 in terms of traditional album sales, The Life of a Showgirl has set a new record for the largest week by equivalent album units since Billboard started ranking albums this way in December 2014. The previous record was held by Adele's 25 which debuted with 3.482 million units on the December 12, 2015 chart.
Chart explanation
What are equivalent album units?
Equivalent album units are a relatively recent method of ranking albums on the Billboard 200 chart, implemented since December 2014. One equivalent album unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported streams, or 1,250 paid/subscription streams generated by songs from an album. The Life of a Showgirl doesn't have any track sales contributing to its total as none of its tracks are available for individual purchase yet.
Sales boost
Swift released multiple CD variants of the album
The Life of a Showgirl got a mid-week sales boost with the release of four new CD variants, sold exclusively through Swift's official webstore. Each CD features different cover art, the album's 12 songs, and two unique bonus tracks. These CDs are in addition to 23 other physical versions of the album (across vinyl, CD, and cassette) and two digital download editions.
Promotion push
Swift's promotional efforts and 'Showgirl's success
Swift has also been actively promoting her new album, appearing on radio shows and giving interviews. Her film Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl dominated the box office over its opening weekend in the US and Canada. In terms of streaming, the album's 12 songs generated over 300 million on-demand official streams in their first two days in the US (October 3-4).