Taylor Swift by Beth Garrabrant | Courtesy of Republic Records
“Evermore” is set to become Taylor Swift’s eighth #1 album in the United States.
According to Hits Daily Double, the album is on track to sell 150-170K US copies. The inclusion of track streams and sales will yield an opening week unit total in the 300-350K range. Both figures will easily rank as the week’s best.
Taylor Swift albums have a history of topping projections, but it seems almost impossible that “evermore” will match the opening week performance of her mid-2020 album “folklore.” That album sold 615K opening week copies and debuted with 846K total first-week units.
Granted, no one was expecting “evermore” to rival those numbers. On top of a longer window between releases, “folklore” benefited from some other factors. It launched when merchandise bundle sales still counted toward the chart. As such, there were far more direct-to-consumer options. “Folklore” also represented her first surprise album – and a noteworthy shift in sound. Positioned as a “sister album” to “folklore,” the new album obviously lacks the same hook.
The lack of immediate physical options puts a further ceiling on the new album’s performance.
Still, the end result is that Swift is going to score another number one in the United States – and do it with one of the best opening week unit figures of the year. It will be her eighth consecutive number one; all but her very first studio album topped the chart.