Taylor Swift Has the Top Four on the Album Sales Chart for the First Time
Written by djfrosty on December 29, 2023
Taylor Swift dominates Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated Dec. 30), as she holds the entire top four titles. That marks the first time any act has claimed the entire top four at the same time, since the chart bowed in May of 1991. For good measure, Swift has five of the top six titles, and six out of the top 10, as her titles populate Nos. 1-4, 6 and 10. Swift tops the list with 1989 (Taylor’s Version), which rises 2-1 for a third nonconsecutive week on top.
Swift leads a busy Top Album Sales chart, as the latest tally reflects the tracking week of Dec. 15-21 — capturing pre-Christmas Day shopping activity. Many titles see increases thanks to general holiday purchases, retailer promotions and sale pricing. On the 50-position chart, of the 49 non-debuts, a total of 44 titles boast weekly sales gains. Only five titles see weekly declines.
Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
The Swift parade in the top 10 of the chart is led by 1989 (Taylor’s Version), which climbs 2-1 for its third nonconsecutive week at No. 1 (95,000 copies sold; up 47%). Swift’s Midnights rises 5-2 (43,000; up 79%), Lover ascends 8-3 (30,000; up 55%) and Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) steps 6-4 (29,000; up 32%). The latter three are also former No. 1s.
Swift is also found in the top 10 at No. 6 with her chart-topping Folklore (falling two spots with 25,000; though up 4%) and at No. 10 with former leader Fearless (Taylor’s Version) (up from No. 16 with 19,000; up 70%).
Rounding out the non-Swift titles in the top 10 are these former No. 1s: Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts (9-5 with 26,000; up 37%), Stray Kids’ ROCK-STAR (holding at No. 7 with 24,000; up 20%), ATEEZ’s The World EP.Fin: Will (down 3-8 with 22,000; down 29%) and Dolly Parton’s Rockstar (10-9 with 19,000; up 8%).
In the week ending Dec. 21, there were 3.553 million albums sold in the U.S. (up 15.6% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 3.219 million (up 18.7%) and digital albums comprised 334,000 (down 7.6%).
There were 1.150 million CD albums sold in the week ending Dec. 21 (up 8.7% week-over-week) and 2.055 million vinyl albums sold (up 25.3%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 36.072 million (up 2.8% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 48.203 million (up 15.1%).
Overall year-to-date album sales total 102.809 million (up 5.6% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 84.823 million (up 9.4%) and digital album sales total 17.986 million (down 9.3%).