Taylor Swift has once again dominated the charts, even beating Arctic Monkeys’ The Car to the top place in the UK, reinforcing her position as one of her generation’s most commercially successful musicians.
Swfit has opened at number one on the Billboard 200 chart for the 11th time in her career, with massive first-week sales, according to Billboard. Her new album Midnights has sold over a million copies since its October 21st release, including over half a million vinyl sales, which has been attributed in part to the variety of sleeve designs available, which prompted fans to purchase numerous copies.
Notably, Adele’s 25, which launched with 3.482 million units in December 2015, was the last album to earn higher first-week sales. Swift is currently tied with Barbara Streisand for the most number one albums by a female musician. She is the sixth musician to have more than ten number one albums, following Streisand, The Beatles, Drake, Jay-Z, and Bruce Springsteen.
Midnights also had the highest sales week for an album since Swift’s 2017 masterpiece, Reputation, demonstrating Swift’s commercial strength.
The long-awaited comeback of Arctic Monkeys, The Car, debuted in the top ten last week, matching the band’s previous chart best of number six with 2013’s AM. Swift, on the other hand, ended their chart-topping run in the UK on Friday, with Midnights taking the top spot ahead of The Car. This is the band’s first album to fall short of the top place.
After a year of seriously questioning Taylor Swift’s talent, the argument for her naysayers is diminishing, as each album she releases seems to break new ground.
