Nearly Half of All Albums Sold in the U.S. Last Week Were Taylor Swift’s ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’

Keith Caulfield
·5 min read
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Taylor Swift’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version) debuts at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated Nov. 11), selling a whopping 1.359 million copies in the U.S. in the week ending Nov. 2, according to Luminate. As previously reported, that marks the biggest sales week of 2023, the largest sales week of any album since 2015, and the sixth-biggest sales week for an album since Luminate began electronically tracking sales in 1991.

1989 (Taylor’s Version) is Swift’s 13th No. 1 on Top Album Sales.

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The first-week sales of 1989 (Taylor’s Version) were so large, they accounted for 43.8% of all albums sold in the U.S. in the tracking week: 1.359 million of the total 3.102 million sold. Further, focusing just on the physical copies of the album Swift sold (CD, vinyl and cassettes), 1989 (Taylor’s Version) sold 1.261 million copies – representing 46.9% of all physical album sales last week (2.689 million physical albums were sold across all titles in the U.S.).

The sales of 1989 (Taylor’s Version) were enhanced by its availability in 15 collectible physical formats: five color vinyl variants, eight CD editions and two cassette editions. Of the five vinyl variants, Target carries a color variant that includes one bonus track (“Sweeter Than Fiction”). The album is also available to buy in two digital download editions: a standard 21-song version and a deluxe 22-song version (which adds a re-recorded version of the album’s “Bad Blood,” featuring Kendrick Lamar).

So far in 2023, Swift’s catalog of albums, across all of her titles, have sold 4.531 million copies – which accounts for 5.4% of all albums sold this year by all artists combined (83.758 million sold year to date). Swift is by far the year’s top-selling act by total album sales. Her collected albums have sold six times more than the year’s No. 2-selling act, Stray Kids, with 753,000 sold.

Elsewhere in the top 10 of the new Top Album Sales chart, the latest releases from SEVENTEEN, Grateful Dead and Duran Duran debut.

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. The new Nov. 11, 2023-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Nov. 7. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.

At No. 2 on Top Album Sales, SEVENTEEN’s SEVENTEENTH Heaven: 11th Mini Album arrives. It’s the sixth top 10-charting effort for the Korean pop group. The set bows with 98,000 copies sold, effectively all from CD sales, bolstered by its availability across 16 collectible CD variants.

The Rolling Stones’ Hackney Diamonds falls 2-3 in its second week, with 33,000 sold (down 65%).

Grateful Dead’s latest archival live album release, Dave’s Picks, Volume 48: Pauley Pavilion, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, 11/20/71, debuts at No. 4 with 19,000 sold. It’s the 38th top 10-charting set for the band since Top Album Sales launched in 1991.

TOMORROW X TOGETHER’s chart-topping The Name Chapter: Freefall dips 3-5 with 15,000 sold (down 48%).

Duran Duran’s new Danse Macabre debuts at No. 6 with 14,000 sold. It’s the fourth top 10-charting title on the 32-year-old Top Album Sales chart. The album’s sales were bolstered by its availability in five different vinyl iterations (adding up to a little over 5,000 sold), but its CD was its best-selling format, as its singular available CD sold nearly 6,000 copies.

Rounding out the new top 10 on Top Album Sales are four former No. 1s from Swift: Midnights (rising 8-7 with 13,000; up 48%), Lover (6-8 with 13,000; up 28%), Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) (11-9 with nearly 13,000; up 74%) and Folklore (9-10 with 12,000; up 43%). With five Swift titles in the top 10 concurrently, it’s the second time Swift held at least half of the top 10 in the same week. She previously did it on the July 22-dated chart, with six titles.

In the week ending Nov. 2, there were 3.102 million albums sold in the U.S. (up 75.5% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 2.689 million (up 88.9%) and digital albums comprised 413,000 (up 20%).

There were 1.233 million CD albums sold in the week ending Nov. 2 (up 105.1% week-over-week) and 1.434 vinyl albums sold (up 76.8%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 29.245 million (up 0.8% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 38.585 million (up 18.4%).

Overall year-to-date album sales total 83.758 million (up 5.7% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 68.296 million (up 10.1%) and digital album sales total 15.462 million (down 10.1%).

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