Hits Daily Double has posted its final weekly sales data, and it confirms last week’s forecast: Taylor Swift’s “Red” delivered the biggest opening sales week of her career.
The Hits data, which usually falls within a close ballpark of the Nielsen SoundScan data used by Billboard, says that Swift moved approximately 1.210 million copies of her fourth studio album. “Speak Now,” its predecessor, was a massive success in its own right, generating roughly 1.047 million first week sales.
Update: Billboard reports that “Red” sold 1.208 million copies in its first week, which makes for the best sales frame since “The Eminem Show” moved 1.332 million in 2002.
Billboard’s data will likely reveal a slightly different total, but unless there was a freak miscalculation, two things can now be officially concluded: “Red” sold more units than “Speak Now” and helped Swift become the first female in the SoundScan era to garner more than a million opening-week sales for two albums.
— Other debuts this week included a red-hot performance from Kendrick Lamar’s “good kid, mAAd city” (~242,000), Tony Bennett’s “Viva Duets” (~35,000), Stone Sour’s “House of Gold & Bones Part One” (~26,000), Gary Clark, Jr.’s “Blak & Blu” (~25,000), Lady Antebellum’s “On This Winter’s Night” (~23,000) and Swedish House Mafia’s “Until Now” (~18,000).
