Taylor Swift has broken yet another impressive record with the release of her 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl.
Billboard reported on Saturday, October 4, that the “Fate of Ophelia” singer, 35, sold 2.7 million copies of The Life of a Showgirl within 24 hours of its release. Dating tracking firm Luminate measured traditional album sales, which combines physical and digital purchases of the record.
Swift’s impressive 2.7 million in sales is her biggest album opening ever in the U.S., and trails behind only Adele’s 2015 release 25 — which sold 3.378 million copies in its first week — as the all-time record holder since Luminate’s tracking began 1991. (The firm’s sales data powers Billboard’s charts.)
Swift also set a new record in the vinyl category, having sold 1.2 million physical LPs since Showgirl’s release on Friday, October 3. The Life of a Showgirl officially set the modern record for the most vinyl albums sold in a single week, topping Swift’s own previous record of 859,000 for 2024’s The Tortured Poets Department, according to Luminate.
Final first week sales estimates for The Life of a Showgirl are expected to be announced on Sunday, October 12.
Swift kicked off her media blitz for The Life of a Showgirl on Friday with an interview with BBC Radio 1’s Greg James. Later that day, Swift casually discussed her recent engagement to NFL star Travis Kelce while guesting alongside Cillian Murphy, Greta Lee, Jodie Turner-Smith and Domhnall Gleeson on The Graham Norton Show in the U.K.
A promotional schedule on her Taylor Nation Instagram asked Swifties to “standby” on Saturday for a special announcement, which turned out to be confirmation of “four limited CD releases” of The Life of a Showgirl — each featuring two newly-recorded acoustic or remixed versions of specific songs on the album. (These four special edition CDs were made available exclusively on Swift’s website for 24 hours or while supplies lasted.)
“File this under ‘save your best for the finale’… I think my favorite moments from the tour were the acoustic surprises,” she wrote via Instagram. “So I went back into the studio with Max [Martin] and Shellback to record acoustic/unplugged versions of a few of the Showgirl songs with brand new vocals and production! Cannot WAIT for you to hear.”
The Life of a Showgirl’s epic release weekend continues with the world premiere of “The Fate of Ophelia” music video and the album’s lyric videos on Sunday, October 5. Next week, Swift will appear on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Monday, October 6, and Late Night With Seth Meyers in the early hours of Thursday, October 9.
Swift penned a moving message to her loyal fans in honor of the album’s release, where she anticipated a massive reaction to The Life of a Showgirl’s 12 tracks.
“Tonight all these lives converge here. The mosaics of laughter and cocktails of tears. Where fraternal souls sing identical things. And it’s beautiful. It’s rapturous. It is frightening,” she wrote via Instagram on Friday. “I can’t tell you how proud I am to share this with you, an album that just feels so right. A forever thank you goes out to my mentors and friends Max and Shellback for helping me paint this self portrait.”
She concluded, “If you thought the big show was wild, perhaps you should come and take a look behind the curtain… The Life of a Showgirl is out now.”
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