The release of Taylor Swift‘s newest album, “Midnights,” has blown all competition out of the water as Swifties kept true to their name and swiftly bought up copies left, right, and center. The pop star has broken numerous records, which looks set to include her own as she heads towards one of the most remarkable opening weeks for an album since she dropped “Reputation” in 2017.
The build-up to “Midnights” was already driving fans wild as Swift utilized social media, posting videos on TikTok that gave Swifties insights into what they could expect from the album. She dropped a very juicy teaser which sent fans wild when she said that one of the things that kept her up at night was “fantasizing about revenge.” Fans were sure that some tea was about to be spilled, and not just one cup but the whole damn pot.
The album was finally released on October 21 at midnight and has already become the top-selling album of 2022 in just three days since. Spotify saw “Midnights” streamed 88 million times in the U.S. alone with a total of 185 million streams globally on the first day of its release, knocking Bad Bunny off his top spot of 183 million streams for the album “Un Verano Sin Ti”. She also broke records set at Amazon Music and Apple Music.
Sales for the album are through the roof with Billboard reporting that “Midnights” sold over 800,000 copies in the U.S. on day one alone, including streams, digital downloads, and CD, vinyl, and cassette sales. If we were to look at this in comparison to other artists, Harry Style’s “Harry’s House,” released in May this year, sold 521,500 equivalent album units in the first week. Beyonce’s “Renaissance” week-one sales were at 332,000, and Adele’s “30”, released almost a full year ago, sold 839,000 equivalent album units in its first week also.
Swift’s sales are doing so well that she is essentially only in competition with herself at this point, as she looks to overtake the last sales record she made with 2017’s “Reputation” which sold 1.26 million copies in its first week and currently holds the biggest sales record in its first week for any artist. The projections for the album’s total sales for the week estimate that it will sell roughly 1.4 to 1.6 million copies, knocking her old album into second place.
