Overview

• Billboard, citing Luminate, reports 3.5 million equivalent album units in the U.S. after five days, surpassing Adele’s 2015 benchmark of 3.482 million for the largest week of the modern tracking era.
• The tally includes 3.2 million traditional sales and about 300,000 streaming-equivalent units, with Adele’s pure-sales record (3.378 million) still narrowly ahead as the tracking week remains open.
• A variant-driven rollout featured more than two dozen exclusive physical and digital editions, 24-hour download offers, and retailer tie-ins that concentrated demand into pure sales.
• On streaming, Spotify confirmed a single-day record within hours of release and roughly 5.5 million pre-saves ahead of launch, contributing additional units to the overall total.
• Swift’s 89-minute Release Party film led the U.S. box office with about $33–34 million over its limited Oct. 3–5 run, as the artist addressed mixed reactions by saying, “I welcome the chaos.”