U.S. vinyl album sales hit a modern-era high in the week ending Dec. 22, as 2.232 million copies were sold according to Luminate. That marks the single-largest sales week for vinyl albums since Luminate began electronically tracking music sales in 1991. It’s also only the second time in the modern era (1991-onwards) that weekly vinyl LP sales have exceeded 2 million. It last happened a year ago, when vinyl had its previous modern-era-high, when 2.115 million were sold in the week ending Dec. 23, 2021.
Vinyl album sales grew by 46.7% in week ending Dec. 22 (as compared to the previous week), powered by holiday gift shopping. The top-selling vinyl album of the week was Taylor Swift’s Midnights, which sold 68,000 copies – the third-largest sales week of the year for an album on vinyl. (Midnights’ vinyl sales profits from its availability across five vinyl variants – all colored vinyl editions, including one exclusive to Target.)
Vinyl album sales comprised 57% of overall album sales in the U.S. in the week ending Dec. 22 (2.232 million of 3.897 million) and 63% of all physical album sales (2.232 million of 3.526 million). (Overall album sales combine both physical and digital download album purchases. Physical album sales comprise vinyl LPs, CDs, cassettes and so forth.)
Year-to-date vinyl album sales stand at 41.891 million – up 3.6% compared to the same point in 2021.
Vinyl Album Sales Break Single-Week Record for US Modern-Era
