Adele’s ’25’ Beat Out Taylor Swift’s ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ for Fastest-Selling Album Worldwide

Shortly after the release of Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl, she appeared to break a record held by Adele for ten years. Swift’s massive first-week sales broke the record Adele held since the release of 25. Now, though, Guinness World Records asserted that Swift actually didn’t beat out Adele. Here’s why.

Guinness declared that Taylor Swift did not beat Adele’s sales record

Swift’s latest album, The Life of a Showgirl, was the top-selling album of 2025. In the first five days since its release, it also broke a record previously held by Adele for the biggest first-week numbers ever recorded. Recently, though, Guinness World Records declared Adele’s album the fastest-selling album worldwide by equivalent album units.

“Adele’s (UK) third studio album, 25, reportedly achieved global equivalent album units (physical sales and digital downloads) of 5.7 million in the week of its release on 20 November 2015, despite initially being unavailable for streaming and without the luxury of having 38 editions of the album available (27 physical and 11 digital), as was the case with the multi-faceted sales approach adopted by 25’s closest challenger, Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl,” according to Guinness World Records.

The organization noted that it was difficult to compare the album rollout strategies employed by the two singers.

“According to Republic Records, Showgirl amassed 5.5 million equivalent album units worldwide on 3–9 October 2025, falling just shy of Adele’s mark, although the two albums represent two contrasting sales strategies across two different eras of music consumption that are somewhat difficult to compare like for like.”

Guinness also noted that “The Life of a Showgirl racked up 1.5 billion global streams in its first week,” while 25 “took a different approach, driving more fans into record stores to buy physical copies of the album without the ability to stream it at home or on the move.”

The numerous variants frustrated some of Swift’s fans

Swift’s fanbase is one of the most dedicated in the world. Still, some of them grew weary of the constant releases.

“This is just exploiting loyal fans at this point,” wrote one Reddit user. “She wants to hit record numbers but this is exhausting.”

Many fans felt that there should just be one deluxe edition of the album.

“But I don’t want 4 cds, I just want 1,” wrote another person. “Why can’t they just have 1 deluxe cd with all the tracks?”

“Okay I’ve been a Swiftie since 2007 and will continue to be, but wtf? This feels gross and exploitive,” added one person. “They should be on one bonus disc and it should have been a preannounced retailer or website exclusive. This is just icky and really turns me off this album, despite how much I’ve been enjoying it. I love acoustic versions and have been FOAMING for real ones. I know I’m not alone in that, and I’m sure her team knows that. Ick.”

Despite this, many fans said they were happy to buy as many variants as Swift released.

Adele once joked that her son’s love of Taylor Swift annoyed her

In 2018, Adele took her son, Angelo, to one of Swift’s concerts. He seemed far more excited about Swift than his mother’s career.

“His jaw dropped,” she told Vogue. “I got really annoyed! I was like, Excuse me! This is what I do, you know.”

She explained that while her son sometimes comes to stadiums with her, she makes him leave before she starts the show. He seemed to hope that in the future, he could attend his mother’s concerts with Swift as his guest.

“He said, When we go on tour, should I have a seat next to me with Taylor Swift’s name on it for Taylor to come?”