On the day of the release of “1989 (Taylor’s Version),” Taylor Swift set a Spotify record in becoming the artist with the most streams in a single day in the streaming service’s history, according to a statement from Spotify on Saturday on X.
The company added that, on top of that, “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” had set a 2023 record as Spotify’s most-streamed album in a single day so far this year.
Spotify did not release overall numbers for the album or Swift’s total as an artist, as is its custom when announcing records being broken. But the company did say that the new Vault track “‘Slut!’ (Taylor’s Version)” debuted in the U.S. at No. 1 with 5.2 million streams, and globally with 11.3 million. On the global chart, meanwhile, a non-Vault track, “Style (Taylor’s Version),” slipped just slightly ahead of “‘Slut!’,” debuting with 11.6 million streams.
A look at the top 50 charts Spotify publishes on its site every day for both the U.S. and the world includes daily stats that provide further numerical indication of the strength of the songs on the album.
On Spotify’s daily U.S. top 50 ranking, as of Saturday afternoon, the 21 tracks on the standard edition of “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” occupy all 21 positions.
There is also a 22nd track that was appended Friday onto what was billed as a “deluxe edition” — the remix of “Bad Blood” with Kendrick Lamar’s guest rap — and that Kendrick-ized version is in the 23rd spot, separated from the standard-edition tracks only by Drake’s “IDGAF” at No. 22. Also, a Swift song that is not on “1989,” her current Billboard Hot 100 topper “Cruel Summer,” appears soon thereafter at No. 25, giving her 23 out of the top 25 songs on Spotify’s daily domestic chart as of this writing.
On Spotify’s global top 50 chart, the album is almost as all-dominant. The first 17 songs on that chart at this writing are all from “1989 (Taylor’s Version),” and all 21 of the tracks are accounted for within the top 25.
American listeners expressed a clear preference for the all-new Vault tracks. On the U.S. Spotify chart, four of the five Vault songs at present take up the top four positions, starting with “‘Slut!’,” before “Style (Taylor’s Version)” interrupts them at No. 5. But on the service’s global chart, “Style (Taylor’s Version)” continues to reign at No. 1, relegating “‘Slut!’” to No. 2 in the international market.
If the new album beats the opening-day streaming numbers for “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version),” which came out just three and a half months ago, that augurs well for the overall first week the album might enjoy.
Up till now, the July release “Speak Now (TV)” has had the best first week of any album so far in 2023, with a first week of 716,000 units. But 507,000 of those units were pure album sales, so whether “1989 (TV)” is able to beat its immediate predecessor may be up to how much it sells, at least as much as how well it streams. First-week returns won’t be reported by Luminate until a week from Sunday. But the odds of sales matching the uptick in streams are good, especially with multiple vinyl variants again being available.
If you’re wondering, just as a point of curiosity, what the least popular songs on the album are (albeit still more popular than anything out there from anyone else in the U.S.), those would be the two ballads from “1989,” with fans immediately gravitating more toward the bangers. “This Love” and “You Are in Love,” come in at the (still-high) bottom of the “1989 (TV)” tunes, with 2.5 and 2.4 million daily streams in the U.S., respectively.
Those stand in contrast to the eight songs registering more than 4 million streams per day domestically. In the latest U.S. chart, “‘Slut!’” was easily the top song, with 5.3 million streams, followed by “Is It Over Now?” and “Say Don’t Go,” virtually tied with about 4.8 million each, “Now That We Don’t Talk” with 4.7 million, and the remake of “Style” at a little less than 4.5 million. The Vault track experiencing a slight lag behind its companions was “Suburban Legends,” with 4.1 million Spotify streams for the day.
Commercial expectations for the “Taylor’s Version” re-do of “1989” have been high, with assumptions that it will easily outpace this past summer’s blockbuster performance of “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” — and maybe even have a shot at outpacing the million-plus opening numbers last fall for the mega-blockbuster “Midnights.”
The original “1989” from 2014 is widely considered her most popular album — or at least her most impactful — even though it ranks just behind “Fearless” in sales markers, having come out at a time when streaming had overcome album sales as the dominant form of consumption. “1989” has been certified nine-times-platinum, just shy of the 10 million certification for “Fearless.” The original Big Machine release has been back in the Billboard chart’s top 20 in recent months, as a result of the Eras Tour, although that is likely to end now that Swifties will largely switch allegiance to the fresh version.