Taylor Swift’s ‘Midnights’ named biggest album of the decade

Album is also biggest debut of career

Taylor Swift’s Midnights lands as the biggest album of the decade and the biggest debut of her career. The project has accumulated nearly 1.6 million total consumption in the US and three million worldwide since Republic Records released it on October 21st. Swift has broken records around the world, many of which are outlined below.

Swift becomes the only artist to have five albums debut with over one million units sold in their first week in US Nielsen history. Midnights marks a new career high as the album surpasses one billion global album streams in under one week, making Swift now the No. 1 best selling artist by total album units in the US in 2022.

The project debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, Album Sales chart and around the world in The UK, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Ireland, Finland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden. The album marks Swift’s biggest consumption week ever in France, Germany, Italy, Poland and The UK.

Midnights sells more than one million US pure album sales in one week, and is the first album to achieve this since her own Reputation in 2017. The album breaks the record for biggest vinyl sales week for any album in the Nielsen area and smashes the modern era best selling vinyl week in Australia, Canada and The UK. She also obtains the biggest vinyl week by an international artist in 2022 in Germany.

The album has shattered many records on streaming platforms, many less than 24 hours of release. Midnights breaks record for biggest first week global Spotify streams for any album in five days of release. It has also achieved the biggest first week global streams for any album in Amazon Music history, breaks the all-time record for most single day streams for an artist catalog in global Spotify history with 228 million and becomes the most streamed female artist in Spotify history as she’s the first to cross 35 billion across all credits.

On Spotify, Midnights breaks the record for the biggest album debut in Spotify history with 186 million streams and the biggest album debut in US Spotify history with 88 million streams. Each of the album’s 13 tracks have charted in the top 10 worldwide, as well.

Swift extends her record for the most No. 1 hits on the US iTunes chart among all artists with 56. She obtains three No. 1 hits on the US iTunes from Midnights with “The Great War,” “Bigger Than The Whole Sky” and “Anti-Hero,” all self-replacing at the top spot. Midnights also marks the biggest first day streams for any album in Dolby Atmos in Apple Music history.

Midnights holds the biggest first day global streams for any album in Amazon Music history with 7.97 million. It also has achieves the biggest first week global streams for any album in history and biggest first day Alexa requests for any album in history.

Midnights breaks the record for the highest first week US streams for any album in 2022 and ties Barbra Streisand as the female artist with the most No. 1 albums in Billboard 200 history with 11. Swift becomes the first female artist to have 11 albums debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and extends the record as female artist with the most weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.

Swift’s 10th studio album is the No. 1 best-selling album of the year by any artist in US pure sales after one day of release, No. 1 best-selling album of the year by any artist in US vinyl sales after one day of release, first one million debut in the post-bundling era, and No. 1  best-selling artist of the year in US pure album sales, first over one million. She has hold  the record for all time direct-to-consumer (D2C) sales record for Universal Music in Brazil, Canada, Mexico, UK, Australia, and Germany.

Midnights surpasses 1989 as the biggest US album debut in Swift’s 16-year career and extends record as the artist with the most weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Artist 100 with 51 weeks.

Last week, Swift teased Jimmy Fallon’s audience that she may tour in 2023, her first in four years. An official announcement will be shared when available. Swift had planned to perform four Lover Fest shows in July 2020, but were pushed back by a year and then ultimately canceled due to the pandemic, along with all international 2020 tour dates.

Buddy Iahn
Buddy Iahn

Buddy Iahn founded The Music Universe when he decided to juxtapose his love of web design and music. As a lifelong drummer, he decided to take a hiatus from playing music to report it. The website began as a fun project in 2013 to one of the top independent news sites. Email: info@themusicuniverse.com