Taylor Swift’s ‘Folklore’ Is The First Album To Sell One Million Copies In The U.S. In 2020

Taylor Swift is back at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 this week, the Billboard ranking that lists in order the most-consumed full-lengths in the U.S. every period. The title vaults from the lower reaches of the top 10 to the peak position thanks in large part to a massive surge in sales, and all those new purchases have helped the title reach an important milestone that few efforts can even come close to these days.

According to Billboard, Swift’s Folklore is now the first album released in 2020 to sell at least one million copies. The set has now been purchased by 1.038 million people in the U.S. alone, a massive sum for any release, especially one that is still relatively new. 

Folklore was released back in mid-July, and it wasted no time in not just debuting atop the Billboard 200, but doing so with the largest start of 2020. Swift’s surprise drop (she only gave fans a few hours to get ready for new music) began its time on the tally with nearly 850,000 equivalent units shifted, with 615,000 of those being sales. That still stands as the largest one-week sales frame, and it is unlikely that anybody will beat that figure before 2021 rolls around.

It’s important to note that Folklore is not the first album to shift at least one million equivalent units this year, but to actually sell as many copies. Plenty of popular efforts have been able to rack up millions of equivalent units when including streaming figures, but very few acts can convince a million fans to pick up a copy on CD or vinyl or head to iTunes to own a new release.

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Folklore sold so well this week (it stands as the bestselling album in the U.S. this time around) thanks to a simple but genius move by Swift, who offered autographed copies in her online store. In doing so, the former country favorite convinced many superfans (and those looking for gifts to give this coming holiday season) to order one right from the singer herself. 

Impressively, Folklore is not only the first album released in 2020 to sell one million copies this year in the U.S., it is also the only album from any year to earn a seven-digit sales sum so far this calendar year. It’s entirely possible that 2020 will wrap without another effort joining in on that feat.

Billboard notes that Folklore is Swift’s ninth album to sell at least one million copies in the U.S. alone. That number includes all of her traditional studio albums and a holiday collection.

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