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Published : 07 Oct 2025, 06:46 PM
Taylor Swift has broken new ground with her latest album -- The Life of a Showgirl, posting massive numbers in both the UK and US and setting new records in streaming and physical sales.
According to a report by the BBC, the album sold 304,000 copies since Friday, surpassing the first-week sales of her previous albums -- The Tortured Poets Department (270,000 in 2024) and Midnights (204,000 in 2022).
With just three days counted, it has already become the UK’s highest first-week total since Ed Sheeran’s Divide sold 672,000 copies in 2017, the report said.
It added that Swift is now poised to overtake Sabrina Carpenter for 2025’s best-selling album. Carpenter, who features on the title track of Swift’s new release, has sold 444,000 copies of her album Short N’ Sweet.
The momentum is even stronger in the US, where the album sold 2.7 million copies on Friday alone.
According to the broadcaster, that marks Swift’s biggest sales week ever and the second-largest for any album since modern chart tracking began in 1991.
Only Adele’s 25 sold more, with 3.38 million in its first week in 2015.
Vinyl figures also hit historic highs. The album sold 1.2 million vinyl copies in a single week, a record in itself.
The report said this was driven in part by eight collectable versions of the album.
The previous record -- 859,000 vinyl copies -- was also set by Swift, for The Tortured Poets Department.
These figures come at a time when album sales are largely in decline.
The BBC noted that only one other album in the UK has sold more than 100,000 copies in a week this year -- Sam Fender’s People Watching.
By comparison, Sheeran’s Play debuted with 67,000, while summer chart-toppers like Reneé Rapp’s Bite Me and Oasis’s Time Flies managed under 20,000.
Not stopping at music, Swift has also topped the cinema box office, selling $46 million (nearly Tk 5.43 billion) in tickets for her 89 minute concert film Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party Of A Showgirl.
The report said the film, described as an extended album launch event, included the premiere of her new music video The Fate of Ophelia, behind the scenes footage, and Swift’s own commentary on the making of the album.
