Photo: usmagazine.com
“Lover” has surpassed the “A Star Is Born” soundtrack to become 2019’s top-selling album stateside, according to Nielsen Music.
Released last August 23, Lover’s sales approached 500,000 through its second day of release. In turn, Lover has now passed the year-to-date sales of what was 2019’s top-seller, Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s A Star Is Born soundtrack (444,000 sold through the week ending Aug. 22). Star was released in on Oct. 5, 2018, and has sold 1.148 million in total in the U.S.
In just 48 hours, Lover has the biggest sales week for any album since Swift’s own reputation sold 1.216 million copies in its first week and debuted at No. 1 on the Dec. 2, 2017-dated Billboard 200 chart.
Lover’s first-week sales are aided by the set’s release in four collectible deluxe editions at Target, as well as dozens of merchandise/album bundles sold through Swift’s official website.
Industry forecasters expect that Lover will bow at No. 1 on the Sept. 7-dated Billboard 200 with over 700,000 equivalent album units earned in the last week of August.
On top of garnering 2019’s biggest sales so far, ‘Lover’ has also given the 29-year-old pop a pair of No. 2-peaking singles (the Urie-featuring “Me!” and follow-up smash “You Need to Calm Down”) as well as positive critical reviews for the 18-track collection.