As was expected by fans and seemingly everybody in the music industry, Taylor Swift debuts her new release Fearless (Taylor’s Version) at No. 1 on the latest Billboard 200, the charting company’s weekly ranking of the most-consumed albums in the U.S.
Her coming in hot at No. 1 isn’t surprising, but by doing so, the singer has changed the record books this year, with one country title beating another in a very important way.
Fearless (Taylor’s Version) now claims the largest debut of any album in the U.S. thus far in 2021. The set, Swift’s ninth to run the show, moved 291,000 equivalent units in its first seven days of availability. That sum was made up of 179,000 actual purchases and 109,000 streaming equivalents, with just a few extra thousand coming from those fans who opted to buy a handful of tracks from the project.
That 291,000 figure beats the previous record holder for the largest debut of 2021, which Morgan Wallen earned back in January. The country singer-songwriter was riding high when his sophomore set Dangerous, a double album, opened at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, giving the musician his first leader. The title moved 265,000 equivalent units in its first frame, and it went on to control the tally for 10 consecutive turns.
In its first week on the Billboard 200, Dangerous actually sold slightly better than Swift’s new effort, with 184,000 fans purchasing his lengthy release. It’s not entirely shocking that he won that race, as Fearless (Taylor’s Version) is largely a collection of tracks that have been around for more than a decade that the singer re-recorded. So, while the Grammy winner does have an enormous legion of fans who did opt to buy the release, there’s also a large group who didn’t feel the need to support her in that manner, as they may have moved away from sales, or they already own the original, and they didn’t choose to buy Fearless for a second time.
To date, Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Dangerous are the only two albums to move at least 200,000 equivalent units in one tracking frame in 2021, though that is sure to change as the year progresses. New titles are expected from the likes of BTS and perhaps even Adele, and both of those could easily topple Swift’s impressive new record.
