Taylor Swift climbs to top — again

How 'Showgirl,' her new studio album, sold a record 4 million copies in first week

- Mikael Wood

THE POP superstar “The Life of a Showgirl,” advertised in Century City above, scored the biggest opening week ever for an album.

(CHRISTINA HOUSE Los Angeles Times)

Madonna's "MDNA." "MDNA." Bruce Springsteen's "The Rising." Mariah Carey's "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel."

According to the Recording Industry Assn. of America, none of these albums each the 12th studio LP by its respective maker-has sold 4 million copies in the United States in the decade or more since it was released.

Yet that’s what Taylor Swift just did in a single week with her 12th album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” which Billboard reported Monday had moved 4 million copies in the seven days between Oct. 3 and 9.

That figure, which combines sales and streaming numbers, represents the biggest opening week ever for an album, breaking the record set by Adele 10 years ago when her “25” moved 3.5 million units in its first week.

Swift marked the achievement on Instagram on Monday with a note to her 281 million followers.

“I’ll never forget how excited I was in 2006 when my first album sold 40,000 copies in its first week,” she wrote. “I was 16 and couldn't even fathom that that many people would care enough about my music to invest their time and energy into it. Since then, I've tried to meet and thank as many people as I could who have given me the chance to chase this insane dream.

Here we are all these years later and a hundred times that many people showed up for me this week.

"I have 4 million thank you's I want to send to the fans," she added, "and 4 million reasons to feel even more proud of this album than I already was."

The speed with which Swift hit the 4-million mark is undeniably impressive.

Morgan Wallen's "I'm the Problem," the biggest album of 2025 so far, has sold and streamed the equivalent of 4.2 million copies, according to the trade journal Hits.