Story highlights
The pop singer's new album sold almost 1.3 million copies
That hasn't happened since "The Eminem Show" in 2002
Swift is now the second-biggest seller of the year
It’s official: Taylor Swift’s new album had the largest sales week since 2002, according to Billboard. “1989” sold almost 1.3 million copies in its debut week, said the data from Nielsen SoundScan.
Why Taylor Swift is everything to the music industry
No one has posted such big numbers since Eminem’s “The Eminem Show” sold just over 1.3 million during its second week on the charts in June 2002. Swift is the only artist to have three weeks in which an album sold a million copies, and this one is her fourth No. 1 – following “Red,” which was released in 2012, “Speak Now” from 2010 and “Fearless” in 2008.
It also makes Swift the only single artist to go platinum in 2014.
Taylor Swift pulls her music from Spotify
The “Frozen” soundtrack, which features multiple artists, has sold 3.2 million albums this year, but in just one week, Swift has become the second-biggest seller.
The singer just barely missed breaking the one-week sales record for an album by a woman, which is held by Britney Spears with “Oops! … I Did It Again” in 2000. Spears sold 1.319 million copies.