As the music-on-vinyl comeback continues in the U.S., a new modern-era sales record is broken seemingly every few months. Most recently, Harry Styles’ Harry’s House sold 182,000 copies on vinyl in its first week in the U.S. — breaking the record for the largest single-week sales of an album on vinyl since Luminate began tracking music sales in 1991.
The record he broke was set just last November — by the debut of Taylor’s Swift’s Red [Taylor’s Version], with 114,000 vinyl LPs in its first week). With that, Swift had broken her own record, set a few months earlier, upon the May 2021 release of Evermore on vinyl (102,000).
In total, the top 10 biggest-selling weeks for a vinyl album in the modern-era (again, since Luminate began tracking sales in 1991) have all occurred in the last 12 months. Thus, it’s quite likely that by the end of 2022, this roundup could get shuffled by the arrival of any number of upcoming albums on vinyl.
The biggest selling week for a vinyl LP since 1991 is, as noted, the debut frame of Styles’ Harry’s House (182,000; week ending May 26, 2022). The top five weeks are rounded out by the opening weeks of Red (Taylor’s Version) (114,000; week ending Nov. 18, 2021), Adele’s 30 (108,000; week ending Nov. 25, 2021), Swift’s Evermore (102,000; week ending June 3, 2021) and Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour (76,000; week ending Aug. 26, 2021).
Nos. 6 and 7 on the ranking are the debut week of Billie Eilish’s Happier Than Ever (73,000; week ending Aug. 5, 2021) and Swift’s Fearless (Taylor’s Version) (67,000; week ending Oct. 7, 2021). At Nos. 8 and 9 are the fifth and second weeks of Adele’s 30 (59,000 and 50,500; weeks ending Dec. 23 and Dec. 2, 2021, respectively) and the debut of Tyler, the Creator’s Call Me If You Get Lost (nearly 50,000; week ending April 21, 2022).
So far in 2022 (through May 26), 41% of all albums sold in the U.S. have been on vinyl. And, it’s expected that 2022 will mark the 17th consecutive year of growth for vinyl album sales in the U.S. In 2021, for the first time since Luminate began tracking sales in 1991, vinyl albums outsold CD albums for the year – and vinyl became the leading format for album purchases overall in the U.S.
