Taylor Swift’s ‘Midnights’ Jumps Back to No. 1 on Billboard 200 After Release of Deluxe Editions

Keith Caulfield
·7 min read
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Taylor Swift’s Midnights jumps back to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated June 10), for a sixth nonconsecutive week atop the list. The set bumps 3-1 after the May 26 release of two deluxe editions of the album, along with a new color vinyl variant of the original standard album.

Midnights earned 282,000 equivalent album units in the United States in the week ending June 1 (up 389%), according to Luminate – the second-largest week of 2023 for any album. Only the debut frame of Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time posted a bigger week this year, when it launched at No. 1 with 501,000 (chart dated March 18).

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Midnights debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 dated Nov. 5, 2022, and spent its first two weeks at No. 1. It then notched three further weeks at No. 1 on the charts dated Nov. 26-Dec. 10, 2022. The album has never left the top 10 in its 32 weeks on the chart.

Midnights’ return to No. 1 halts the chart-topping run of Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time, which falls to No. 2 after spending its first 12 weeks at No. 1 – the most weeks atop the chart for a country album in over 30 years. (Country albums are those that have charted on, or are eligible for, Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart.)

Also in the top 10 of the new Billboard 200 chart, rapper Lil Durk score his sixth top 10, as Almost Healed starts at No. 3.

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new June 10, 2023-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on June 6. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.

Of Midnights’ 282,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending June 1, album sales comprise 196,000 (up 1,529% — the largest sales week for any album in 2023 and the biggest since Midnights itself debuted with 1.114 million sold on the Nov. 5-dated chart), SEA units comprise 80,000 (up 79%, equaling 107.6 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs), album sales comprise 6,000 (down 30%) and TEA units comprise 6,000 (up 618%).

Midnights had an array of drivers assisting its return to No. 1 on the Billboard 200. On May 26, Swift released a new deluxe edition of Midnights, dubbed The Til Dawn Edition, through digital retailers, Swift’s webstore and streaming services. The 23-track set includes the original standard album’s 13 tracks, plus the seven bonus tracks from the earlier-released Midnights (The 3am Edition, originally released on Oct. 21, 2022, shortly after the standard album), and three bonus tracks: “Hits Different,” which was previously only on the Target-exclusive CD edition of the standard edition of Midnights; a new version of the standard album’s “Snow on the Beach,” featuring more Lana Del Rey, and a remix of the standard set’s “Karma,” adding Ice Spice as a featured artist.

The “Karma” remix, alongside its official music video, also premiered across streamers and digital retailers as a single on May 26. Swift and Ice Spice gave the first live performance of the track at Swift’s May 26 The Eras Tour concert at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.

In addition to the Midnights (The Til Dawn Edition), on May 26 Swift introduced a further iteration of the album, named Midnights (The Late Night Edition). The 21-track set contains the original standard album’s 13 tracks, plus five of the seven bonus tracks from The 3am Edition and three bonus tracks: the previously noted new versions of “Snow on the Beach” and “Karma,” along with a previously unreleased track titled “You’re Losing Me (From the Vault).” The Late Night Edition version of the album is available only as a CD sold at merch stands at Swift’s The Eras Tour stops (having started on May 26) for $10 and was briefly sold through Swift’s webstore (for 24 hours only) as a digital download album for $5.99 (from 8 p.m. ET on May 26 to 8 p.m. ET on May 27). “You’re Losing Me” is exclusive to The Late Night edition of the album and is not available to stream anywhere officially, nor sold as a stand-alone track.

There is no word on when, or if, The Late Night Edition will be widely released, nor if “You’re Losing Me” will be released a la carte.

Beyond the above drivers, the standard Midnights vinyl album was reissued in a color variant on May 26. The day, the Love Potion purple marble color variant of Midnights was available in select independent record stores, after being previously sold in a short pre-order window through Swift’s webstore (with orders shipping out starting May 26).

Wallen’s One Thing at a Time surrenders the No. 1 slot after spending its first 12 weeks at No. 1, as the album dips to No. 2 with 126,000 equivalent album units earned (down 2%).

Lil Durk notches his sixth top 10-charting effort on the Billboard 200 as Almost Healed debuts at No. 3 with 125,000 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum, SEA units comprise 122,000 (equaling 167.82 million on-demand official streams of the set’s tracks), album sales comprise 2,000 and TEA units comprise 1,000. Notably, the 125,000-unit start marks Durk’s best week, outside of his collaborative set with Lil Baby, which bowed at No. 1 with 150,000 (June 19, 2021, chart).

A trio of former No. 1s is next on the Billboard 200, as SZA’s SOS dips 2-4 (55,000 equivalent album units earned; down 29%), Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album falls 4-5 (48,000; up 2%) and Swift’s Lover is a non-mover at No. 6 (38,000; down 1%). Luke Combs’ Gettin’ Old rises one rung to No. 7 with 33,000 (down 4%).

Bad Bunny’s chart-topping Un Verano Sin Ti climbs one spot to No. 8 (nearly 33,000 equivalent album units; down 3%), Zach Bryan’s American Heartbreak bumps 10-9 (31,000; down 1%) and Bailey Zimmerman’s Religiously. The Album. climbs back to the top 10, up 11-10 (30,000; down 4%).

As the top 10 contains Wallen’s two albums (One Thing at a Time and Dangerous at Nos. 2 and 5), Combs’ Gettin’ Old (No. 7), Bryan’s American Heartbreak (No. 9) and Zimmerman’s Religiously. The Album. (No. 10), there are five country albums in the top 10 for the first time in nearly a decade. The chart last had at least five country sets in the top 10 on the Oct. 5, 2013-dated list. That week, Justin Moore’s Off the Beaten Path debuted at No. 2, Chris Young’s A.M. launched at No. 3, Luke Bryan’s former leader Crash My Party fell 4-6, Keith Urban’s Fuse fell 1-8 and Billy Currington’s We Are Tonight debuted at No. 10.

Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.

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