See if you can get your head around this: Taylor Swift‘s new album, The Life of a Showgirl, has broken a sales record set by Adele‘s 2015 album, 25 — but only if you count it in “equivalent album units.”
Billboard reports that Showgirl has sold 3.5 million equivalent album units since its release on Oct. 3. Those units include actual physical and digital purchases of the album, as well as streaming activity. Billboard counts a certain number of streams as equaling one album sale, using a Byzantine formula we won’t bore you with.
The previous record for equivalent album units was held by Adele’s album, which earned 3.482 million in its first week on sale. But when it comes to actual album sales, Adele still holds the record: She sold 3.378 million albums in her first week versus Taylor’s 3.2 million.
Of course, it’s very likely that Taylor will also surpass Adele’s album record by the end of the week. Billboard is expected to reveal the final tally on Oct. 12, along with where The Life of a Showgirl will debut on the Billboard 200 album chart.
This is all explained in exhausting detail over on Billboard and also by The New York Times.
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