Every Major Record That Taylor Swift's 'The Life of a Showgirl' Broke

Taylor Swift has cemented herself as a once-in-a-generation artist when it comes to her performance on music charts. Earlier this year, she was named Billboard’s top artist of the 21st century, a ranking based on chart performance during the first quarter of the century.

In late 2022, she became the first artist ever to claim the entire top 10 positions on the Billboard Hot 100 simultaneously with tracks from her 10th studio album Midnights — a feat that seemed nearly impossible to replicate again in the future... until she did the exact same thing, in an even more dominant fashion, two times in 2024 and 2025.

Her cumulative numbers—whether it be album sales, Hot 100 entries, touring gross, or total streams (across any platform you can think of)—speak for themselves. Anyone that keeps tabs on the charts has a full understanding of how massive Taylor Swift is right now, both as an artist and as a brand.

Because of this, when Swift first announced her 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, back in August, many chart followers expected records to be broken. The only real question with the release of this album was a simple one: how many records was she going to break?

The week has now passed, and that question can now be answered. Let’s take a look at every notable new record that now belongs to Taylor Swift.

Biggest First Week Album Sales in the US

Perhaps the most discussed record over the past week, The Life of a Showgirl became the first album ever to earn 4 million equivalent album sales in its opening week (or any week) in the United States.

Equivalent album sales (EAS), a metric that combines sales and streams into one, was first introduced to Billboard charts in December 2014 to better reflect an era in which pure sales were in an industry-wide decline, while streaming was on the rise. Before this change, the Billboard 200 chart was tabulated weekly by pure album sales only.

Showgirl became the first album to cross the 4 million mark, scoring a final total of 4,002,000 units in its first week. This record was previously held by Adele’s 25 in 2015, which debuted with 3.48 million units, a record it held for a decade.

Showgirl and 25 remain the only albums to earn at least 3 million units in any week.

Biggest First Week Pure Album Sales in the US

Showgirl also broke the record for biggest pure sales week for any album in US history, selling over 3.479 million copies opening week. This record, with tracking dating back to 1991, was previously held by Adele’s 25, which sold 3.378 million copies upon debut back in 2015.

Most Albums With One Million Copies Sold in a Week in the US (Nielsen Era)

With Showgirl’s staggering sales numbers, Taylor Swift became the first artist ever to have 8 different albums sell at least 1 million copies in a single week in the modern era.

This feat has occurred only 27 times in the modern era across 25 albums, meaning that over 30% of all albums that sold one million copies in a single week belong to Swift.

Biggest Sales Week for a Vinyl Album in the US (Nielsen Era)

A record that Swift previously held three times over, Showgirl became the first album ever to sell over 1 million vinyl copies in a week in the US, with a final tally of 1.334 million vinyl sales.

Swift first broke this record in 2022 with Midnights, and she has maintained and shattered this record three more times ever since. Each of the top 6 best-selling weeks on vinyl now belong to her, as well as 8 of the top 10.

Most #1 Albums on the Billboard 200 Chart as a Solo Artist

With Showgirl debuting atop the Billboard 200, Swift now has 15 albums that have reached the top of the long-tenured US Albums chart. She breaks a tie with Drake and Jay-Z to become the solo act with the most #1 albums in the chart’s history, dating back to 1956.

Only The Beatles have more #1 albums (19) than Swift.

Biggest Streaming Week for an Album in 2025 in the US

Despite a relatively modest tracklist of 12 songs, Showgirl totaled nearly 681 million US streams in its first week, a 2025 weekly high that will most likely stand at the end of the year.

The all-time record belongs to… Taylor Swift, of course. The Tortured Poets Department debuted with over 891 million streams in May 2024.

Biggest Streaming Day for a Song in Spotify History (Global)

Showgirl’s lead single, The Fate of Ophelia, shattered the records for biggest streaming debut and daily streams by any song in Spotify history.

Ophelia debuted with 30.98 million streams on the platform globally, clearing her own record held by Fortnight by well over 5 million streams.

Swift now holds each of the top 19 biggest song debuts in Spotify history, with Showgirl tracks claiming eight of the top 10 positions.

Fastest Song to Reach 100 Million Streams on Spotify (Global)

Additionally, Ophelia broke a streaming speed record, becoming the fastest song to reach and surpass 100 million streams on Spotify, doing so in just under 5 days.

This record was previously held by Jung Kook and Latto’s Seven, which passed the mark in 6 days.

Most Weekly Streams for a Song in Spotify History (Global)

Ophelia maintained a firm hold atop Spotify’s Global chart throughout its first week, and ended up breaking the record for most weekly streams by a song in Spotify history by a very comfortable margin, earning 128.9 million streams.

Miley Cyrus previously held this record with Flowers, which tallied over 115 million streams in its second week in early 2023.

Biggest Units Week in Billboard Global 200 History

Another record previously held by Cyrus, Ophelia debuted atop the Billboard Global 200 chart and became the strongest #1 in the chart’s history.

The Global 200, beginning in September 2020, ranks the biggest songs in the world on a weekly basis across major digital platforms, combining digital sales and overall streams.

First Album to Place All Songs Uninterrupted From #1 Down on the Hot 100

While Swift has now proven that occupying the entirety of the top 10 of the Hot 100 is no sweat for her, Showgirl became the first album ever to have all of its songs placed at the top of the chart uninterrupted. All 12 entries from the album charted at #1-12.

While tracks from Midnights and The Tortured Poets Department occupied the entire top 10, not all of the albums' tracks charted uninterrupted. This marks the third time that Swift has filled the entire top 10 of the chart, and her second time occupying at least the top 12 positions.

First Song to Debut Atop the Hot 100 Without Sales

Adding onto an impressive list of achievements, Ophelia also became the first and only single ever to debut at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 without any pure sales.

Ophelia, as well as all tracks off of Showgirl, were only made available to download digitally when purchasing the album. As album sales do not count as sales for each individual song, Ophelia (along with the other 11 tracks) finished the week with zero downloads sold on the Hot 100.

Despite this, Ophelia earned nearly 700,000 first-week units in the US, a number driven entirely by streams.

Biggest Streaming Week for a Song in Hot 100 History (Post-UGC Era)

Ophelia’s massive US streaming week (92.5 million) also resulted in another record: the biggest streaming week in Hot 100 history in the post-UGC era.

UGC (user-generated content) was removed from Hot 100 chart calculations in 2020 in two phases to align with the inception of Billboard’s Global charts, ensuring that only official audio and video streams were tabulated across all major charts. This significantly reduced the streaming totals of many songs that previously benefited from viral UGC streams.

Most #1 Albums Among International Acts (UK)

While all sorts of US records were remade this past week, Swift also found herself making history in the UK. With Showgirl’s debut atop the UK’s Official Albums Chart, Swift has now earned the most #1 albums in UK history among international acts, with 14.

Only The Beatles and Robbie Williams, two British acts, have scored more #1 albums in the country’s history. Swift is now one album shy of tying both acts for the all-time record.

Chart-Breaking Conclusions

Keeping track of every new chart record that was claimed over the past week is not easy work.

Beyond these broken records, there lies another long list of numbers and achievements that would place this album and its songs at #2 in the record books, only behind other songs and albums by Swift herself. The question of “What records HASN’T Taylor Swift broken?” may actually have fewer answers at this point in time.

With an assortment of other unnamed records that were most certainly broken over the past week, it’s safe to say that the release of The Life of a Showgirl will go down as one of the most historic weeks in the music chart history — at least until Swift’s next album release. One that may be her most special yet given it's her 13th studio album, a number she holds a special affinity for.

If these broken records don’t do it enough justice, HITS Daily Double reported that Showgirl’s debut marks the “biggest moment in the sales history of the business,” and that will tell you all you need to know.