After debuting her 10th studio album, “Midnights,” in October and gaining awards buzz for her “All Too Well” short film and her original song for “Where the Crawdads Sing,” “Carolina,” Taylor Swift has set an astounding 28 industry records in 2022, including having most Top 10 hits by a female artist and becoming the only artist to have five albums debut with over 1 million units sold in their first week in U.S. history.
“Midnights” has earned 6 million album equivalent units worldwide, with 3 million in the U.S. alone, in the eight weeks since dropping Oct. 21. After achieving almost 1.6 million sales during its debut week, “Midnights” quickly became the fastest-selling album of the 11-time Grammy winner’s career.
Aside from earning 36.6 billion combined streams of her music and 22.4 million album-equivalent units to-date in 2022, the artist maintained her grasp on the awards world, with four Grammy nominations for Song of The Year, Best Country Song, Best Music Video and Best Song Written for Visual Media.
Though “All Too Well” was not announced on the shortlist for the Oscars Live Action Short Film category, “Carolina” was recently nominated for a Golden Globe Award, Critics Choice Award and Hollywood Critics Association Award, and was named to the Oscar shortlist for Best Original Song in 2023.
“Taylor is a multidimensional creative force whose achievements place her among the most accomplished artists in the history of music, and we are thrilled and honored to partner with her across so many aspects of her career,” said Lucian Grainge, Universal Music Group Chairman and CEO.
“Taylor’s achievements over the past year have been absolutely spectacular!” said Monte Lipman, Republic Records founder and CEO. “With more than two dozen historic milestones set by ‘Midnights,’ it’s nearly unimaginable for any artist to sell more than six million albums in less than eight weeks during any era of our business. These accomplishments further exemplify Taylor’s prowess as the consummate artist and storyteller defining a generation.”
Read on for a complete list of 28 records the artist has set in 2022:
- “Midnights” debuted with a career high 1+ billion first week global streams.
- Swift became the only artist to have five albums debut with over 1 million units sold in their first week in U.S. Nielsen history.
- She’s the leading artist in the U.S. for on-demand and streaming equivalent albums.
- “Midnights” achieved 3 million+ album consumption in its first week.
- “Midnights” earned over 1 million U.S. pure album sales in one week, the first album to achieve this since her own “Reputation” in 2017.
- In the U.S., “Midnights” was the highest selling physical release of 2022, selling +1.3 million copies. Additionally Swift sold another 1.1 million physical records in the U.S. across her catalog in 2022.
- “Midnights” launched at No. 1 with a career-high 1.578 million units sold first week.
- Swift is the first artist in history to capture the entire top 10 on Billboard’s Hot 100 Chart, and the entire top 10 on the digital sales chart. She claimed the same feat in Canada.
- She set a new record for vinyl sales in one week with 575,000 copies sold in the U.S.
- Swift is the first artist in history to capture entire top five on Billboard Global 200.
- She’s the first artist to simultaneously debut No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and Hot 100 on four occasions.
- She broke the record for most consecutive No. 1 studio album debuts on Billboard 200 with 11.
- She captured the biggest streaming week for an album by a female artist with 549 million streams.
- “Midnights” broke the record for biggest album debut in Spotify history with 185 million+ streams.
- The new album had the biggest first week global streams for an album on Spotify with 785 million.
- Swift captured the top five biggest song debuts in global Spotify chart history.
- “Midnights” had the biggest first day and first week global streams for an album on Amazon.
- “Midnights” had the biggest first day global streams for a pop album on Apple Music
- “Midnights” had the biggest first day global streams for an album in Dolby Atmos on Apple Music.
- “Midnights” debuted at No. 1 in 19 countries including U.S., Australia, U.K., France, Germany and Italy
- In Australia, Swift became the first artist in history with a No. 1 Single, No. 1 Album and No. 1 Airplay debut, and she topped both sales charts for five consecutive weeks.
- In Canada, all the tracks off “Midnights” occupied the Canadian Hot 100 chart.
- In Brazil, “Midnights” had the biggest first-day streams for an album on Spotify.
- In the Philippines, “Midnights” captured the top six biggest debuts in Spotify history.
- In China, the album was the fastest selling album by a Western artist.
- “Midnights” moved more than 22.6 million Album Equivalent Units in 2022.
- There were a total 36.6 billion combined streams across all platforms.
- Swift broke the record for the most Top 10 hits by a female artist with 40.
