The #2 overall album of 2015 (beneath Adele’s “25”), Taylor Swift’s “1989” generated what Nielsen Music reports as 3.105 million annual consumption units.
1.993 million of those units came from pure sales, while the remaining 1.112 million are attributable to Track Equivalent Albums (track sales/10) and Streaming Equivalent Albums (on-demand audio track streams/10).
Due in large part to Swift’s stance toward streaming (and resulting absence from key streaming services), “1989” was a comparative underperformer in SEA. Whereas fellow Top 10 albums like The Weeknd’s “Beauty Behind The Madness,” Drake’s “If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late,” and Justin Bieber’s “Purpose” generated well over 700 million on-demand audio streams throughout the year, “1989” generated 83.002 million annual streams (55,334 SEA units).
The album, on the other hand, was a blockbuster performer in TEA. Aided by strong interest in each of the album’s five (at the time) radio singles, “1989” generated 10.563 million in annual track sales (1.056 million TEA units).
Of the Top 10 overall albums, “1989” by far generated the greatest number of track sales. Ed Sheeran’s “x,” the next-best seller in terms of track sales, sold 6.786 million in 2015 (678,600 TEA units).