Everything Taylor Swift does these days is massive, but even she probably couldn’t have guessed that her new album would earn this distinction so quickly.
After only four days on sale (Nov. 10 through the close of business on Nov. 13), the pop star’s new record Reputation has become the bestselling album of the year, and the competition isn’t even close.
According to Nielsen Music, Reputation has already sold 1,050,000 copies in its first four days of availability, easily passing the biggest title of the year before this week, Ed Sheeran’s ÷ (Divide). That record was released back in March and at the time, it stormed the Billboard 200 thanks to the massive popularity of both the musician himself and the album’s lead single “Shape Of You,” which debuted at the top of the Hot 100 and became his first leader on that tally in January.
As of Reputation’s release date, Divide had sold 909,000 copies. While that figure surely has risen in the past half a week, it has likely only grown by 10,000 or 20,000 equivalent units (and that's combining sales and streams), as the record is shifting fewer than 40,000 every week. This past full frame, it moved 36,000, which was enough to put it in 10th place yet again.
While Swift has already shown just how powerful she is with this latest studio effort (in a number of ways), that figure is sure to rise, and perhaps even double by the time the year is up. The 10-time Grammy winner is sure to shift several hundred thousand copies in the next week or so, and Reputation could hold onto the top spot for several frames.
It is worth noting that while Swift's sixth record is now the bestselling, it's not the biggest title of the year. Other collections have been able to rack up millions of equivalent units (which includes the sale of individual tracks and streams), and the "Look What You Made Me Do" chanteuse still has a way to go before she catches up to records like Divide or Kendrick Lamar's DAMN., which have both already been certified double platinum for moving at least two million equivalent units.
Swift’s latest may be the bestselling, but it faces an uphill battle if it wants to end 2017 as the most-streamed, as it wasn’t available on platforms like Spotify and Apple Music upon its arrival, so it missed out on collecting tens of millions of streams ... though that’s exactly why it sold so well.
