On the Charts: Taylor Swift’s ‘Reputation’ Is 2017’s Top Album With Platinum Week
Taylor Swift‘s Reputation scored the best-selling week of 2017 – and became the year’s highest-selling album in total so far – as the singer’s latest Number One LP sold over 1.2 million copies in its debut week.
Reputation marked the fourth time Swift crossed the platinum plateau in an opening week – following 2010’s Speak Now, 2012’s Red and 2014’s 1989 – making her the first artist to achieve four million-selling weeks, Billboard reports. Reputation also notched the 10th best sales week in Nielsen Music history.
According to Nielsen, Reputation sold an astonishing 41 percent more albums than the other 199 albums on this week’s Billboard 200 combined.
In an era where streaming drives most sales thanks to streaming equivalent albums (SEAs), Reputation‘s big opening came on the back of largely traditional sales, both digitally and physically, as Swift once again withheld her new album from streaming services for its first week of release.
By selling 1.216 million copies in its first week, Reputation is already 2017’s highest-selling album, cruising past Ed Sheeran’s Divide, which held the title with 931,000 total copies. Including track equivalent albums (TEAs) pushes Reputation‘s total to 1.238 million copies, Swift’s second-best debut after falling short of 1989‘s 1.287 million opening week copies.
Way further down in the sales department, Sam Smith’s The Thrill of It All dropped one spot to Number Two with 66,000 copies. Chris Brown’s Heartbreak on a Full Moon remained at Number Three, followed by Post Malone’s Stoney at Number Four and Divide at Number Five.
Only one other new release cracked the Top 10: Evanescence’s Synthesis debuted at Number Eight at 34,000 total copies. 21 Savage, Offset and Metro Boomin’s Without Warning (Number Six), Maroon 5’s Red Pill Blues (Seven), Kenny Chesney’s Live in No Shoes Nation (Nine) and Blake Shelton’s Texoma Shore (Number 10) closed out the Top 10.
Next week, Reputation is expected to dominate again, although Tim McGraw and Faith Hill’s The Rest of Our Life should close the gap.