Billboard 200 - 12/30/23 - Taylor Swift

[Gary]

Taylor Swift’s ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’ Back at No. 1 on Billboard 200
Plus: Mariah Carey's Merry Christmas returns to the top 10 for the first time this season.


By Keith Caulfield

12/24/2023

Taylor Swift’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version) rises 2-1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated Dec. 30), marking the fourth nonconsecutive week atop the list for the set. It earned 136,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Dec. 21 (up 25%) according to Luminate. The set, along with many of Swift’s titles, continues to benefit from vinyl sales encouraged by holiday shopping and promotions.


1989 (Taylor’s Version) spent its first two weeks at No. 1 (Nov. 11-18), had another week in the lead on the Dec. 9 chart, and then bounces back to the top on the new chart.

Swift has a total of three albums in the top 10 on the new chart, as 1989 (Taylor’s Version) is joined by former No. 1s Midnights (7-3 with 75,000 – up 31%) and Lover (9-7; 60,000 – up 22%).

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Dec. 30, 2023-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Dec. 27, one day later than normal due to the Christmas Day holiday on Dec. 25. For all chart news, follow billboard and billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.

Nicki Minaj’s Pink Friday 2 falls to No. 2 with 100,000 equivalent album units (down 56%) after debuting atop the list a week ago. Michael Bublé’s former No. 1 Christmas climbs 5-4 (70,000; up 10%), Morgan Wallen’s chart-topping One Thing at a Time bumps 6-5 (just over 64,000; up 2%), and Drake’s former leader For All the Dogs dips 3-6 (64,000; down 6%).

Nat King Cole’s The Christmas Song ascends 11-8 (56,000 equivalent album units; up 17%), SZA’s former leader SOS falls 8-9 (54,000; up 2%), and Mariah Carey’s Merry Christmas returns to the top 10 for the first time this season, rising 12-10 (52,000; up 14%). Merry peaked at No. 3 in its initial chart run, on the Dec. 17, 1994-dated chart. This is the sixth consecutive season the album has revisited the top 10.

Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.

[Gary]

1. 1989 136,000
2. Nicki Minaj 100,000
3. Midnights 75,000
4. Michael Buble 70,000
5. Morgan Wallen 64,000
6. Drake 64,000
7. Lover 60,000
8. Nat King cole 56,000
9. SZA 54,000
10. Mariah Carey 52,000

[areyoureadytojump]

www.billboard.com/music/chart-beat/taylor-swift-1989-taylors-version-fourth-week-number-one-billboard-200-chart-1235564944/

[NeRD]

Fantastic numbers for Nicki. This album has potential to be a huge commercial success if they handle it right.

[jodakyellow]

This is Taylor’s historic 67th week atop the albums chart, putting her in a tie with Elvis Presley and behind only The Beatles, who have 132.

[Wave.]

Not 100k in the 2nd week GAG em again.

[Eloqueen™]

Fantastic hold for Nicki! And amazing for Taylor as always!

[Push The Button]

Dec 24, 2023 18:58:19 GMT -5 jodakyellow said:

This is Taylor’s historic 67th week atop the albums chart, putting her in a tie with Elvis Presley and behind only The Beatles, who have 132.

That’s an average of seven weeks at #1 for every Beatles album. Lordy mercy.

[Studio Cart]

Can Midnights not leave the top 10 ever?! Until I'm tired of watching it get 80-100 weeks in top 10 and she can have 3 albums in GOAT top 10. I hope she can get 3 albums in GOAT top 5.
Damn they really should combine re-recording with the OG. Wonder why not. 1989 can get 90 weeks in the top 10 at this rate, so's Midnights. 3 albums in GOAT top 5 incoming.

[areyoureadytojump]

www.billboard.com/pro/weekly-us-vinyl-album-sales-pass-2-million-third-time-modern-era/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR13mq03xeB19pDPKJQQ44mHu5qlIG4-t1qBC8Ico4pzNFhnU2izds8265Q

Weekly U.S. Vinyl Album Sales Surpass 2 Million for Only Third Time in Modern Era
BY KEITH CAULFIELD
12/28/23

In the week ending Dec. 21, 2.054 million vinyl albums were sold — the third-largest week for vinyl sales since Luminate began tracking data in 1991.

[Baby Yoda Hot100Fan]

^Thanks TS:

"The top-selling vinyl album in the week ending Dec. 21 (as reflected on Billboard’s Vinyl Albums chart dated Dec. 30) was Taylor Swift’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version) with 57,000 copies sold. Swift had the top four-selling vinyl albums of the week, and six of the top seven. Midnights, Lover and Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) are Nos. 2-4, while Folklore and Fearless (Taylor’s Version) are Nos. 6 and 7.

In total, in the week ending Dec. 21, 2023, Swift’s vinyl album sales across all of her albums added up to 194,000 — 9.5% of all vinyl albums sold by all artists in the U.S. that week."

[areyoureadytojump]

www.billboard.com/music/chart-beat/taylor-swift-top-four-album-sales-chart-first-time-1235573476/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwAR1S2s88ekbmUZQy6mKrB2XDrBj5IOGlFH5Fe6EksY_H3WRCHGh5RO-YuWo

Taylor Swift Has the Top Four on the Album Sales Chart for the First Time
By Keith Caulfield
12/29/2023

For the first time since the Top Album Sales chart started in 1991, one artist has the top four titles at the same time: Taylor Swift.

Taylor Swift dominates Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated Dec. 30), as she holds the entire top four titles. That marks the first time any act has claimed the entire top four at the same time, since the chart bowed in May of 1991. For good measure, Swift has five of the top six titles, and six out of the top 10, as her titles populate Nos. 1-4, 6 and 10. Swift tops the list with 1989 (Taylor’s Version), which rises 2-1 for a third nonconsecutive week on top.

Swift leads a busy Top Album Sales chart, as the latest tally reflects the tracking week of Dec. 15-21 — capturing pre-Christmas Day shopping activity. Many titles see increases thanks to general holiday purchases, retailer promotions and sale pricing. On the 50-position chart, of the 49 non-debuts, a total of 44 titles boast weekly sales gains. Only five titles see weekly declines.

Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units.

The Swift parade in the top 10 of the chart is led by 1989 (Taylor’s Version), which climbs 2-1 for its third nonconsecutive week at No. 1 (95,000 copies sold; up 47%).

Swift’s Midnights rises 5-2 (43,000; up 79%),

Lover ascends 8-3 (30,000; up 55%) and

Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) steps 6-4 (29,000; up 32%). The latter three are also former No. 1s.

Swift is also found in the top 10 at No. 6 with her chart-topping Folklore (falling two spots with 25,000; though up 4%) and at No. 10 with former leader Fearless (Taylor’s Version) (up from No. 16 with 19,000; up 70%).

Rounding out the non-Swift titles in the top 10 are these former No. 1s:

Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts (9-5 with 26,000; up 37%),

Stray Kids’ ROCK-STAR (holding at No. 7 with 24,000; up 20%),

ATEEZ’s The World EP.Fin: Will (down 3-8 with 22,000; down 29%) and

Dolly Parton’s Rockstar (10-9 with 19,000; up 8%).

In the week ending Dec. 21, there were 3.553 million albums sold in the U.S. (up 15.6% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 3.219 million (up 18.7%) and digital albums comprised 334,000 (down 7.6%).

There were 1.150 million CD albums sold in the week ending Dec. 21 (up 8.7% week-over-week) and 2.055 million vinyl albums sold (up 25.3%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 36.072 million (up 2.8% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 48.203 million (up 15.1%).

Overall year-to-date album sales total 102.809 million (up 5.6% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 84.823 million (up 9.4%) and digital album sales total 17.986 million (down 9.3%).