‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’ outsells original in release week

‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’ has outsold the original in sales for debut release weeks, making it her best first week for an album ever.

The new album has topped the Billboard 200 with 1.653million equivalent album units, according to Billboard, which puts it in the lead ahead of her previous personal best, last year’s ‘Midnights‘ at 1.578million.

The original ‘1989’ sold 1.297million units in its first week in 2014, meaning this is the first ‘Taylor’s Version‘ re-recording to surpass the original in its opening week in sales alone.

As per the publication, the achievement marks the largest week for any album by units earned since Adele‘s ‘25‘, which debuted at 3.482million album units.

Sales of ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’ were also boosted by its availability in 15 collectible physical formats, including vinyl, CDs and cassette tapes.

The news comes after it was reported that ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’ earned the biggest opening week on the UK Albums chart this year.

This makes ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’ her eleventh album to hit Number One in the UK charts. Previous chart-topping albums include ‘Red’ (2012), ‘1989‘ (2014), ‘reputation‘ (2017), ‘Lover‘ (2019), ‘folklore‘ (2020), ‘evermore‘ (2020), ‘Fearless (Taylor’s Version)‘ (2021), ‘Red (Taylor’s Version)‘ (2021), ‘Midnights‘ (2022) and Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) (2023).

The re-recording of ‘1989’ also broke two Spotify records, with Taylor Swift becoming the most-streamed artist on a single day in the platform’s history.

In a five-star review of ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’, NME wrote: “As we’re witnessing the biggest year of Swift’s career so far, the artist’s ability to reinvent herself while honouring her core blueprint is only becoming more impressive. By journeying into the past, it’s a reminder that the future of Taylor Swift may hold so much more that will continue to surprise us.”

In other news from the singer, Swift is the most translated artist in the world, according to a new study.