It took until November for 2014 to have it’s its first million-selling album, but Taylor Swift has done it. The country turned pop singer-songwriter sold 1.287 million copies of her fifth studio album, 1989, last week, according to data from Nielsen SoundScan.
The album becomes the first released this year to sell a million copies, and the year’s second-highest seller overall, just behind the Frozen soundtrack. This also means that Swift sold more than two copies of 1989 every second last week.
Swift is the first act, solo or group, to ever to have three albums sell a million copies in a week. In 2010, her Speak Now sold 1.047 million. Just two years ago, her fourth studio album Red debuted hit the shelves with 1.21 million sales, the last album to top the million mark in a week.
Believe it or not, Taylor Swift could top the 1.319 million copies Britney Spears managed with Oops! … I Did It Again in 2000, the most ever by a female artist. In the same week, Brit’s album accounted for 8% of total album sales.
Swift’s new album aaccounted for 22% of the total albums selling in the last week.
The rest of 2014’s highest selling albums have seen a British invasion with Ed Sheeran, newcomer Sam Smith and Coldplay taking out the top three spots.
Released this year in June, Ed Sheeran’s sophmore album X became the year’s fastest seller, with the singer-song writer saying, “I’m so happy people have been enjoying my album so much – great to hear that it’s still the biggest seller of the year and has now gone double Platinum too.” Not too shabby for a 23 year old.
See the rest of the top 15 highest selling albums by a recording artist in 2014 (before Taylor of course…):
