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Mert Alas & Marcus Piggot
Taylor Swift
Chart Beat
Taylor Swift Breaks Adele’s Streaming-Era Record With ‘The Life of a Showgirl’
The Life of a Showgirl surpasses a major 10-year-old consumption record held by Adele, and continues to near the modern-era single-week album sales record.
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Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl has now earned 3.5 million equivalent album units in the United States, according to initial reports to data tracking firm Luminate, since the album’s release on Oct. 3. Of that sum, traditional album sales (physical and digital purchases) equal 3.2 million copies, with the remaining 300,000 powered by streaming activity of the songs on the album.
Luminate’s current tracking week began on Friday, Oct. 3, and ends on Thursday, Oct. 9.
With 3.2 million copies sold, The Life of a Showgirl continues to near the record for the largest sales week for an album in the modern era (since 1991, when Luminate began electronically tracking music purchases). The modern-era single-week sales record is held by the opening week of Adele’s 25, when it debuted with 3.378 million copies sold in 2015.
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However, as The Life of a Showgirl has earned 3.5 million equivalent album units, the album has now secured a new record for the largest week, by equivalent album units, for an album, since the Billboard 200 chart began ranking the week’s most popular albums by equivalent album units in Dec. 2014. The previous record was held by the debut week of Adele’s 25, which bowed with 3.482 million units on the Dec. 12, 2015 chart (mostly powered by the 3.378 million individual purchases of the album, with the remaining sum driven by track purchases and streaming).
Equivalent Album Units Explained: Each equivalent album 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. (None of the tracks from The Life of a Showgirl are available to purchase individually, so the album does not have any track sales contributing to its total thus far.)
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The Billboard 200 transitioned from a pure album sales-based ranking to a multi-metric, units-based ranking, with the Dec. 13, 2014-dated chart. From that point forward, albums were ranked on the Billboard 200 by equivalent album units earned — meaning that in addition to album purchases counting towards an album’s chart placement, streams of songs from an album, as well as track purchases, would also contribute towards an album’s position on the weekly chart.
While the Billboard 200 has incorporated streams and track purchases since Dec. 2014, Billboard continues to publish weekly album sales-only charts, including the overall Top Album Sales chart (which ranks both current and older/catalog titles), and Top Current Album Sales.
Luminate’s sales, streaming and airplay data powers Billboard’s charts. All numbers cited in this story are for the U.S. only.
Life of a Showgirl’s first-week numbers (equivalent album units, total traditional album sales and streaming figures) are expected to be announced by Billboard on Sunday, Oct. 12, along with its assumed large debut on the multi-metric Billboard 200 albums chart (dated Oct. 18).
For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram.
PREVIOUSLY (OCT. 7): Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl has reached 3 million in traditional album sales (physical and digital purchases), across all versions of the album, according to initial reports to data tracking firm Luminate. On the album’s first day of release (Oct. 3), it cleared 2.7 million sold. After Showgirl’s first day, it captured the second-largest sales week for an album in the modern era — since Luminate began electronically tracking data in 1991. The only larger sales week in that span of time was registered by the opening frame of Adele’s 25, which sold 3.378 million copies in its first week in 2015.
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Showgirl has earned over 3.2 million equivalent album units in the U.S. With 3.2 million equivalent album units earned, Showgirl already has the second-largest week, by equivalent album units, for any album since the Billboard 200 began ranking the week’s most popular albums by equivalent album units with the Dec. 13, 2014-dated chart. The largest week, by equivalent album units, for any album, in that span of time, was registered by the debut week of Adele’s 25, which launched with 3.482 million units on the Dec. 12, 2015 chart.
Showgirl got a mid-week boost with the release of four new CD variants of the album, exclusively sold through Swift’s official webstore. Available for a limited time, each CD had alternate cover art, the album’s 12 songs, plus two unique bonus tracks for each CD (alternate versions of songs from the album). These four CDs join 23 previously available physical versions of the album (across vinyl, CD and cassette) and two digital download editions (a standard wide version, and iTunes-exclusive version with a bonus video). Also helping Showgirl was a restock of a previously available deluxe CD boxed set, sold through Swift’s store, containing a branded cardigan sweater and a copy of the CD.
Swift herself has been on the promotional trail, chatting up the album on radio programs and sitting down for an interview on NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (Oct. 6). Her film Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl barnstormed movie theaters over the Oct. 3-5 weekend, coming in atop the box office at U.S. and Canada movie theaters.
As for Showgirl’s streaming start – its 12 songs generated over 300 million on-demand official streams in its first two days in the U.S. (Oct. 3-4). Swift holds the record for the largest streaming week for an album, when The Tortured Poets Department debuted with 891.37 million on-demand official streams for the 31 songs on its deluxe edition in 2024.
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The most-streamed song on Showgirl in its first two days is “The Fate of Ophelia,” with more than 48 million official on-demand steams. That number could grow significantly following the song’s official music video premiere on YouTube on Sunday, Oct. 5.
If The Life of a Showgirl debuts atop the Billboard 200, it will mark Swift’s 15th No. 1 album, lifting her past Drake and JAY-Z for the most No. 1 albums among soloists, and becoming the sole act with the second-most No. 1s. She is currently tied with Drake and JAY-Z with 14 No. 1s each, and only The Beatles, with 19 No. 1s, have more, dating to when the chart began publishing on a regular, weekly basis in 1956.
All 14 of Swift’s full-length studio albums and re-recorded projects from 2008’s Fearless (her second album) through 2024’s The Tortured Poets Department have debuted at No. 1.
PREVIOUSLY (OCT. 4): Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl album is off to a sparkling start in the United States. On its first day of release, Oct. 3, the set sold 2.7 million copies in traditional album sales (physical and digital purchases) across all versions of the album, according to initial reports to data tracking firm Luminate. That marks Swift’s biggest week ever, and the second-largest sales week for any album in the modern era — since Luminate began electronically tracking data in 1991. The only larger sales week in that span of time was registered by the opening frame of Adele’s 25, which sold 3.378 million copies in its first week in 2015.
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Showgirl also stuns with a new modern-era record (1991-present) for the most copies of a vinyl album sold in a single week, having already sold 1.2 million copies on wax. That breaks the single-week record, set by Swift in 2024, when her last album, The Tortured Poets Department, sold 859,000 copies on vinyl in its first week.
Further news of first-week building sales and streaming activity for the album, as provided by Luminate, will be reported in the coming days.
The Life of a Showgirl was announced on Aug. 12, and Swift’s official webstore began taking preorders for the album soon after. The set was issued as a widely available streaming edition and in three widely available versions to purchase across all participating retailers (a standard CD, vinyl and digital download album). There is a plethora of further variants of the album to purchase, with more details on the assorted versions later in this story.
Sales Story: The 2.7 million-sales number registered for Showgirl is inclusive of both over-the-counter and download purchases of the album made on Oct. 3, in addition to what is assumed to be a large number of pre-orders of the physical album through Internet retailers (such as Swift’s webstore, Amazon, Target, etc.) shipped to customers for arrival on release day, as well as pre-orders of the digital download album that were redeemed on release day (via the iTunes Store and other similar sellers).
After one day on sale, The Life of a Showgirl is the top-selling album of 2025 in the U.S., surpassing the 520,000 sold of The Weeknd’s Hurry Up Tomorrow, through the week ending Sept. 25.
The Life of a Showgirl’s sales are bolstered by its availability across 23 different physical configurations: 12 CDs, eight vinyl LPs, two deluxe CD boxed sets containing branded clothing and a CD, and a cassette. Four of the physical editions were exclusively sold by Target stores in the U.S. (three CDs and one vinyl), while two (a standard CD and vinyl) were available to purchase at all participating retailers.
Of the remaining 17 physical iterations, all were exclusively sold via Swift’s webstore, and most were sold for limited windows of time since the preorder launched in August. Her store carried the two deluxe CD boxed sets (one contains a branded cardigan sweater and a CD, the other contains a branded crewneck and a CD); four signed CDs; four deluxe CDs in premium packaging containing a collectible charm and photo cards; six vinyl LPs; and the cassette.
On the digital download side, there is a standard digital download available to purchase through all download sellers, as well as an iTunes Store-exclusive version that comes with a short bonus video. (Of note, none of the tracks from the album are available to purchase individually.)
To compare, Swift’s last studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, had 19 different physical iterations available in its first week (nine CDs, six vinyl LPs and four cassettes) and two digital download versions (the standard 16-song album, and the surprise deluxe 31-song Anthology edition).
Vinyl Victory: Collectively, the eight vinyl LPs for Showgirl combined to sell 1.2 million copies on the album’s first day of release — immediately breaking the modern-era record for the most vinyl copies of an album sold in a single week. Swift herself previously held the record with 859,000 copies of Poets sold in its first week.
Million-Sellers Club: Even though we’re only one day down into the tracking week, The Life of a Showgirl sashays into the single-week million-sellers club. With 2.7 million already sold, Showgirl has the second-largest sales week of the modern era (1991-present). It stands behind only the opening week of Adele’s 25, which bowed with 3.378 million sold in 2015.tShowgirl is the eighth Swift album to have sold at least 1 million copies in a single week, following the debuts of Poets, 1989 (Taylor’s Version), Midnights, reputation, the original 1989, Red and Speak Now. She is the only act with eight different albums to each sell at least 1 million copies in a single week in the modern era. In total, there have been 27 instances — by 25 different albums — in which an album sold at least 1 million copies in a week in the modern era. One of those albums, Adele’s 25 sold more than 1 million in three separate weeks.
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