Taylor Swift’s New Album Is Bad — Yet Poised to Beat Adele’s 10-Year-Old 3.7 Million First-Week Sales Record

Taylor Swift just dropped a new album and, shocker, the internet exploded. Yes, there are lyrics that read like ripped pages from a diary, and yes, some of it sounds like she is firing shots at other pop stars. Whether you think that is brave, petty, or just very Swift, the rollout is a machine. The numbers are huge, the discourse is messy, and the record books are already quaking.

So, about that album

'The Life of a Showgirl' landed on Oct. 3, 2025. Early chatter: the writing is intimate-to-teen-journal, the targets feel pointed, and the whole thing has people asking whether Taylor is now playing to the converted more than to the general public. Fair question. Also the kind of lightning-rod conversation that tends to help her break records, not hurt her.

'The difference is that when 25 dropped it was 3 million people buying a copy, with Taylor it is 100,000 of her fans bulk buying 30 variants of the same album.'

- @superioradkins, Oct. 5, 2025

That tweet sums up the current argument: Adele vs. Taylor, pure demand vs. variant strategy. It is an inside-baseball point, but it matters when you are talking about first-week records and how they get there.

The numbers so far

Opening day was a tidal wave: 2.7 million copies sold in the U.S. across physical and digital in 24 hours, according to initial Luminate data reported by Billboard. As of this writing, the album sits around 3.4 million sold, putting it on pace to chase Adele's '25' opening-week mark of 3.7 million. Not a done deal yet, but the gap is small and the momentum is obvious.

What it already broke

If you thought this was just about first-week sales, think bigger. Per US Magazine, the 'Showgirl' rollout has already notched a ridiculous stack of milestones:

• iTunes biggest album of 2025 by first-day sales worldwide
• First and only female artist to surpass 1,000 million RIAA-certified album units
• $35 million in ticket sales for the global 'Release Party of a Showgirl' screenings
• Her personal best U.S. first-day sales: 2.7 million copies in 24 hours
• All-time U.S. vinyl record: 1.2 million copies sold in a single week
• Apple Music: biggest album of 2025 by first-day streams worldwide
• Apple Music: biggest song of 2025 by first-day streams worldwide for 'The Fate of Ophelia'
• Spotify: most-streamed album in a single day in 2025
• Spotify: most-streamed song in a single day in platform history for 'The Fate of Ophelia'
• Amazon Music: most-streamed album of 2025 in its first 24 hours

Where this sits in the record-book timeline

The crown for biggest U.S. first-week album sales has moved around a bit over the last 25 years. Adele set the modern bar with '25' at 3.7 million in 2015. Before that, *NSYNC's 'No Strings Attached' did 2.416 million in 2000, and Eminem's 'The Marshall Mathers LP' hit 1.76 million the same year. Taylor has been here too: 'The Tortured Poets Department' opened with 2.61 million units in 2024. Now, 'The Life of a Showgirl' is hovering around 3.4 million mid-week and taking aim at Adele's 3.7 million. Translation: this leaderboard could be rewritten any day now.

Strategy, spectacle, and yes, the GDP joke

Swift's release cycles are less album drops and more rolling media events. Limited vinyl variants, aggressive physicals, and now theatrical tie-ins that behave like movie openings — the 'Release Party of a Showgirl' screenings alone did $35 million — are part of why her launches eat the news cycle. Combine that with streams and you get why people keep saying she is not just breaking records, she is allegedly moving the U.S. GDP needle. Hyperbole? Probably. But it tells you how outsized her footprint is right now.

Anyway, if you are here for the music, 'The Life of a Showgirl' is streaming on all the major platforms in the U.S. If you are here for the drama, the timelines and the totals are only getting spicier as the week closes. Does the album work for you, shade and all — or is it starting to feel like a members-only club? Drop your take.