These figures help convey the tale of Swift’s massive success with her 2014 album, from No. 1 songs to album sales to tour grosses.
“Taylor Swift ended the American leg of her era-defining world tour with a bang on Wednesday night (August 9 – 8/9, got it? ): 1989 (Taylor’s Version) was the official way to wrap it up.”
The fourth album of her six-part re-recording effort will be her historic 2014 album, which will be released on October 27 – a full nine years after the original 1989. The latest release, Fearless (Taylor’s Version), Red (Taylor’s Version), and Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), topped the Billboard 200 chart upon its release last month, making it the biggest debut of the year, while the first two claimed the top spot on the Billboard 200 upon their releases in 2021.
Though all of Swift’s studio albums have been commercial successes to some extent, 1989 maintains a particular position in her story. With singles like “Shake It Off,” “Blank Space,” “Style,” and “Bad Blood,” the album not only stretched her sound beyond the bounds of country music after years of confinement, but it also signaled her shift into full-fledged pop music.
Swift said in a statement announcing the re-recorded version’s release, “The 1989 album has changed my life in countless ways.” The album’s commercial performance was nothing short of mind-boggling, representing artistic progress and embracing the entirety of 2014, making it a particularly momentous milestone in her career.
Before 1989 (Taylor’s Version) is released this autumn, let’s take a look at the nine big numbers that highlight 1989’s smash performance and explain why fans are so enthusiastic about its re-recorded edition.
Three Number One Hot 100 Hits
1989 holds the distinction of being Swift’s album with the most Hot 100 chart-topping singles. In 2014, the lead song, “Shake It Off,” spent four weeks at the top of the Hot 100. Following that, “Blank Space” dominated the charts for seven weeks, the longest run for any Swift song until “Anti-Hero” surpassed it earlier this year.
The release of the star-studded music video for the remix of “Bad Blood,” starring Kendrick Lamar, in May 2015, helped the song hit number one for a week. “Bad Blood” became Lamar’s first Hot 100 chart-topper, however, he returned two years later with his solo single “Humble.”
5 of the Top 10 Hot 100 Hits
In addition to “Shake It Off,” “Blank Space,” and “Bad Blood” hitting the top of the Hot 100, “Style” reached number six, and “Wildest Dreams” reached number five. (The album’s sixth official single, “Out of the Woods,” peaked at number 18.) Which of Swift’s albums had the most top ten hits? Midnight’s simultaneous inclusion of ten makes Swift the first artist in history to have all tracks from an album hit the top 10 on the Billboard 200.
Over 1.287 million copies were sold in its first week.
While Speak Now (1.047 million) and Red (1.208 million) both broke one million in their first weeks, 1989’s first-week total eclipsed both albums in 2014. It was the best sales week for any album in more than a decade, surpassing Eminem’s The Eminem Show’s 1.322 million in June 2002, making Swift the first artist to win three million-plus sales weeks. Though Reputation (2017) and Midnights (2022) are expected to ultimately surpass that total, 1989’s premiere figure remains Swift’s highest pure sales week to date.
For a total of 11 weeks, he was number one on the Billboard 200.
1989 spent over eight years in the top ten of the charts after its October 2014 release, slipping in and out of the top slot until February 2015. By October 2015, the album has spent its first full year in the top ten of the Billboard 200. Swift’s first and only fifth album to accomplish the feat. It stayed at number one for 11 weeks, tying Swift’s album for the most chart-topping weeks with Fearless (Taylor’s Version).
Over 12.3 million equivalent album units have been sold so far.
1989 remains at the top of Swift’s career in terms of multi-metric consumption nearly nine years after its enormous chart debut. To date, no album in Swift’s catalog has sold more equivalent album units (12.3 million), exceeding 1989’s multi-metric consumption of album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA), and streaming equivalent albums (SEA).
On the 1989 World Tour, he earned 250.7 million dollars.
Swift launched the 1989 World Tour in 2015, eight years before becoming the most popular ticket of the Reputation Stadium Tour’s summers. The tour included stadiums, as well as a plethora of arena, runs in support of her prior albums. According to Boxscore, the 1989 worldwide journey made more than $1.3 billion in total, with the U.S. legs alone earning $181.5 million. Swift will surpass both legs of the voyage with the Reputation Stadium Tour in three years, and the 1989 World Tour revenues may be her best.”
Grammy Award for the Year’s Second Album
After winning Album of the Year at the 2010 Grammys with “Fearless,” Swift returned to the podium six years later when “1989” prevailed at the 2016 event. (In the meanwhile, “Red” was nominated in 2014 but lost to Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories.)
Swift became the first female solo artist to win multiple Album of the Year Grammys in “1989,” and when “Folklore” earned her third prize in 2021, she joined an even more restricted club. Swift is now the only artist to have received the Album of the Year award three times in three years, joining Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder, and Paul Simon.
Two re-recorded songs have already been released.
Although anticipation for “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” has been growing for months, fans were treated to an unexpected present of previously released re-recorded tracks, which will appear on the tracklist. Swift suddenly released a re-recorded version of “Wildest Dreams (Taylor’s Version)” in September 2021 after utilizing the original track for a TikTok video; the re-recorded song hit the Hot 100 and peaked at No. 37.
And, in May 2022, after appearing in the teaser for the Amazon Prime series “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” we got a redesigned version of “This Love.” “This Love” never charted on the Hot 100 in its original form, but “This Love (Taylor’s Version)” peaked at No. 50 last year.
5 Brand-New “From the Vault” Tracks
Swift remarked on social media about “1989 (Taylor’s Version)”: “To be honest, this is my favorite re-recorded album so far because the 5 ‘From the Vault’ songs are crazy good.” Along with “Fearless (Taylor’s Version),” “Red (Taylor’s Version),” and “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version),” fans have so far gotten 21 “From the Vault” tracks – compositions that Swift withdrew from those albums’ sessions, recorded afresh in a new series, and included in the re-recordings.
Although Swift hasn’t revealed anything about the revived music from “1989 (Taylor’s Version),” the previously released “From the Vault” tracks included Phoebe Bridgers, Ed Sheeran, Marren Morris, and Fall Out Boy as guests. Swift stated, “I can’t believe how much they’ve left us in the dust.” “But not for much longer!”