Just days after its release, Taylor Swift’s new album Lover was generating some eye-widening statistics. After one day, the album already had the most first-week sales of any album this year. After two days, it was the best-selling album in the US of the entire year. Naturally, then, this news isn’t surprising: Lover officially debuted at the top of the Billboard 200 chart dated September 7. Lover is her sixth No. 1 album.
This No. 1 spot comes thanks to 867,000 equivalent album units earned during the week ending August 29. 679,000 of those units came from album sales, which means that the following statement is fact: During its opening week, Lover accounted for 27 percent of all album sales in the US. Ultimately, Lover had the biggest overall week for an album since Swift’s Reputation in 2017.
2.487 million albums were purchased in the U.S. last week, according to Nielsen Music, across all formats (CDs, digital albums, vinyls, cassettes, etc.).
679,000 of that sum were just @taylorswift13's 'Lover.'
Meaning 27% of every album purchased last week was 'Lover.'
— billboard charts (@billboardcharts) September 3, 2019
All that said, Lover‘s first week actually doesn’t stack up to the opening frames of her previous few albums, as Lover is her first album in a while to not earn a million album units in its first week. Her four previous albums — Reputation, 2014’s 1989, 2012’s Red, and 2010’s Speak Now — all reached at least a million first-week units, with 1989 tallying up over 1,287 million sales in its first week.
Meanwhile, Swift also recently addressed fan theories about her song “London Boy,” debunking them at least in part.
