Taylor Swift released Fearless (Taylor’s Version), her re-recording of her best-selling 2008 sophomore album, a little over a month ago, and scored a No. 1 debut on the Billboard 200 chart. In the month since its release, we’ve been keeping track of how the unprecedented chart-topper — the first re-recorded version of another album to reach the peak of the Billboard 200 — has performed as compared to the original Fearless, in terms of weekly listenership.
In its fourth week on the Billboard 200, Fearless (Taylor’s Version) slips out of the top 10, coming in at No. 15 after posting at No. 9 on last week’s tally. The re-recorded Fearless earned 24,000 equivalent album units for the chart week dated May 15, according to MRC Data, down from 33,000 equivalent album units in the previous chart week.
Meanwhile, the original Fearless has held steady over the past three chart weeks, with 5,000 equivalent album units earned. Here’s a visual comparison of how Fearless and Fearless (Taylor’s Version) have performed over the four most recent chart weeks, in equivalent album units:
As noted, Fearless (Taylor’s Version) has benefited from six previously unreleased “From The Vault” tracks that count toward its equivalent album unit numbers, as well as from fan interest over the first re-recorded full-length in a six-album project Swift originally announced in 2019. That interest helped Fearless (Taylor’s Version) score the biggest debut on the Billboard 200 so far this year, with 291,000 equivalent album units earned in its first chart frame last month.
As Swift continues to work on her next re-recorded album, she’ll take a quick break to pick up the Global Icon Award at the 2021 BRIT Awards on Tuesday (May 11). Last March, Folklore became the third album of her career to win album of the year at the Grammys.
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