On the eve of the 11th month of the year, Taylor Swift has achieved her 11th No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 with “Midnights.” The set enters with the chart with 1.578 million album equivalent units in the U.S. — the largest week for any album in nearly seven years, as noted by Billboard. (Adele logged 3.482 million units on the Dec. 12, 2015-dated chart with “25.”)
Swift is now tied with Barbra Streisandas the female artist with the most No. 1 albums in the chart’s history.She’s the sixth act with over 10 No. 1 albums on the chart, joining the Beatles (19), Jay-Z (14), and Drake, Bruce Springsteen, and Streisand (all with 11).She also becomes the only artist to have five albums debut with over 1 million units sold in their first week in U.S. Nielsen history.
Swift’s 13-track album, officially released on Oct. 21, is already the year’s top-selling album by overall sales; she beats her own record for the largest sales week for an album since her own “Reputation” debuted in 2017.
Three hours after its release, “Midnights” was followed up with a deluxe version, aka the “3am Edition,” which included seven bonus tracks. There were five different LP editions — four of them with different cover artwork and different LP color variants, plus a separate Target edition duplicating one of those covers but with a different color. The CD edition, which was also available with four different covers and interior artwork, logged 395,000 in sales — contributing to her record-breaking sales week.
Even more impressive: Swift broke the modern-era U.S. record for single-week vinyl sales, selling 575,000 vinyl LPs of “Midnights.” (By comparison, Harry Styles’ “Harry’s House” achieved top vinyl-seller status in its first week with 182,000 copies sold.)
In streaming, Swift scores the third-largest streaming week for an album, by total on-demand official streams (549.26 million), and also logs the biggest streaming week for a non-R&B/hip-hop album and any album by a woman. She now holds the third-biggest streaming week for an album after Drake’s “Scorpion” and “Certified Lover Boy.”
Lil Baby’s “It’s only Me” sits at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with 110,000 equivalent album units earned (down 49%) after scoring the top spot a week prior. Bad Bunny’s “Un Verano Sin Ti” slips out of the top two slots for the first time since its release earlier this May, landing at No. 3 with 67,000 units (down 7%).
Morgan Wallen’s “Dangerous: The Double Album” remains at No. 4 with 43,000 units (down 4%) as does the Weeknd’s “The Highlights,” which keeps still at No. 5 with 39,000 units (down less than 1%).
The Arctic Monkeys’ “The Car” earns the band their fourth top 10-charting album, entering at No. 6 in its debut week with 37,500 units (of that total, 28,500 units consist of album sales). YoungBoy Never Broke Again’s“Ma’ I Got a Family” also makes its debut on the chart this week, bowing at No. 7 with 37,000 equivalent album units earned. The 19-song set is the Louisana-bred rapper’s 12th top 10-charting effort and his fifth top 10 in 2022.
Jeezy and DJ Drama’s “Snofall” enters the top 10 of the albums chart at No. 9 with 31,000 units earned. A majority of that total is comprised of the 38.45 million on-demand official streams of the set.
Rounding out the new top 10 is Styles’ “Harry’s House,” which keeps at No. 8 with 32,000 equivalent album units earned (up 1%) and Beyonce’s former No. 1 “Renaissance,” falls 6-10 with 30,000 units earned (down 10%).
