Taylor Swift has broken the first week US sales record with her album The Life of a Showgirl, selling more than 4mn units — the biggest debut since data tracking began in 1991.
Of those 4mn, 3.5mn were sales of vinyl, CDs, cassettes and digital downloads, while 500,000 came from streaming, according to data company Luminate. The figure eclipses the previous record set by Adele’s 25, which sold 3.4mn copies in 2015.
Swift’s tally, for an album that has been met with mixed reviews from critics, is unprecedented in the streaming era, when physical sales have largely collapsed. Other top-tier pop acts, including Beyoncé, Billie Eilish and Kendrick Lamar, have sold in the range of about 200,000-400,000 album units in their first week — which are considered strong performances.