Taylor Swift told “Late Night” host Seth Meyers on Wednesday night that the release week for her latest album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” has been her favorite so far.
The album’s immediate and staggering success could be a contributing factor.
Swift wrapped up a massive media blitz for “Showgirl,” which was released on Oct. 3. Already, the album has racked up historic streaming numbers, and a huge number of album variants have been sold.
Here’s a look at how “Showgirl” has exploded in its first week.
‘TLOAS’ comes in second for first-week streams this year
Swift has claimed the second-best streaming week of the year with more than 460 million on-demand official streams in the U.S., according to a Thursday report from Billboard, which tracks sales, streaming and airplay data for its charts. The outlet cited initial reports from data tracking firm Luminate in its report.
The streaming data for “Showgirl” pulls together multiple versions of the album, including the standard edition, which features 12 songs, and two other track-by-track versions that include commentary from Swift and lyric videos for all of the tracks.
Swift’s’ numbers fell behind only Morgan Wallen, whose album “I’m the Problem” earned 462.63 million streams during its May release week, according to Billboard’s count.
The music-tracking outlet noted Swift’s major release week easily falls among the top 10 all-time biggest streaming weeks for any album.
Swift herself holds the record for largest streaming week ever with “Tortured Poets Department,” which saw 891.37 million streams in its opening week last year, Billboard reported.
“TLOAS” also broke a single-day streaming record on Spotify, achieving the title in only 11 hours, according to the streaming platform. The album saw 6 million pre-saves — beating “TTPD,” which previously held the record.
Swift expected to break longstanding sales record
Swift is poised to break the longstanding record for the largest sales week for an album in the modern era, which is currently held by Adele’s “25.” The British singer’s album sold 3.378 million copies during its release week in 2015, Billboard reported.
“Showgirl” sales have likely been boosted by a host of exclusive editions of the album released on iTunes this week that were available for only 24-hours each. Swift also released a wide range of exclusive CDs and vinyls that contributed to its massive sales.
According to Billboard’s count, she has put out a whopping 32 different versions of “Showgirl,” including 18 CDs, eight vinyls, one cassette and five downloadable variants.
Swift’s exact sales numbers will be released on Sunday, Billboard said. “Showgirl” will also debut on the Billboard 200 chart the same day.
‘The Official Release Party of a Showgirl’
In conjunction with the release of “The Life of a Showgirl,” Swift released an 89-minute behind-the-scenes look at the making of the album that only played from Oct. 3 to Oct. 5.
The movie featured the premier of the music video for lead single “The Fate of Ophelia,” a look at the making of the video, Swift’s explanations of each song, and lyric videos that went track-by-track.
Unsurprisingly, the movie dominated the box office, pulling in more than $50 million globally, taking over the box office for the weekend and beating out traditional blockbusters, according to AMC Theatres.
Swift’s “Showgirl” movie event achieved such success even after there was barely any promotion — there was no trailer, no Thursday preview showtimes, and that was after she announced its release only two-weeks before it hit theaters.
Late night around the globe
Swift has spent the last week on what appears to be her most comprehensive media tour in years.
In addition to a handful of appearances on radio shows in the UK, Swift kicked off release week across the pond on “The Graham Norton Show.”
She traveled back to the States in time to make it on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” on Monday and, followed that up with a second trip to 30 Rock and a feature on “Late Night” with Meyers on Wednesday.
Swift and Fallon talked engagement rings, masters recordings and rumors that Swift turned down the Super Bowl Halftime Show because the NFL wouldn’t allow her to own the concert footage (not true, said Swift). She also explained the meaning behind most of the 12 tracks and praised her Eras Tour dancers for their work on the “Ophelia” music video.
While joking with Meyers, Swift revealed her fiancé, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, made a classic mix-up at one of her Eras Tour shows.
The media tour appears to be over for now, but Swifties are hoping for a surprise appearance on “Saturday Night Live” when Sabrina Carpenter hosts on Oct. 18.
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