From Taylor Swift to Adele: Female artists ruled the decade with best-selling albums

Taylor Swift's The Tortured Poets Department has received 2.61 million album and streaming units in the first week of release in the US, Billboard reported on Sunday.

 Can it become another milestone year for the pop megastar and earn the slot for best-selling album for this year? One has to wait and see. 

Until then, let us look at the best-selling albums in the US in the last decade, as per Billboard. The list makes one thing clear- female artists ruled the charts. 

1989 (Taylor's Version) is the only album released in 2023 that sold 2 million copies in the U.S. The singer's fourth re-recorded album released in October last year with 16 are re-recorded versions and 5 vault tracks. With 176 million reported streams, the album went on to register the highest single-day streams globally for an album in 2023. All the 21 tracks on the standard 100 had entered the Billboard 100.

2022 - Taylor Swift for Midnights

Taylor's tenth studio album became an instant hit upon release, becoming the 11th consecutive number-one album on the Billboard 200. It also won Taylor the Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards. Anti-Hero became the best-selling song of 2022 in the US.

2021 - Adele for 30

30 marked the fourth studio album for Adele. It dealt with the singer's experiences following her divorce and its impact on her son's life. Amongst setting other records, 30 became the top-selling album of 2021 within its first day.

2020 - Taylor Swift for Folklore

Taylor Swift took social media by storm when she announced in April 2020, the artwork for her eighth album. "Most of the things I had planned this summer didn't happen, but there is something I hadn't planned on that DID happen. And that thing is my 8th studio album, Folklore," she wrote. It became the longest-reigning number-one album of 2020.

2019 - Taylor Swift for Lover

Lover was the first album which Taylor released after first album after ending her 12-year contract with Big Machine Records. It went on to sell 1.085 million pure copies, thus becoming the best-selling album of the year.

2018 - Various Artists for The Greatest Showman

The soundtrack album to the film The Greatest Showman was a massive hit upon release, garnering critical acclaim and awards attention. It also became the best-selling album in the US with 1,491,000 in pure album sales.

2017 - Taylor Swift for Reputation

Reputation was Taylor Swift's response towards media scrutiny, and arrived without any previous promotional material prior to its release. It became the fourth consecutive album to sell one million first-week copies in the US. At the end of the year, sales were at 2.478 million.

2016 - Drake for Views

At the US Billboard 200, Drake's Views debuted with 1.04 million album-equivalent units in its first week of release. It consisted of 20 songs, all of which were on the Billboard Top 100.

2015 - Adele for 25

Adele's 25 sold over 3.38 million copies in its first week of sales in the US. It went on to win the 2017 Grammy Award for Album of the Year. The opening song of the album- Hello, was a groundbreaking success upon release, staying on the Billboard Top 100 for ten consecutive weeks. Hello also won Grammys for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Pop Solo Performance.

2014 - Taylor Swift for 1989

Taylor's fifth studio album was one of her most successful, breaking various records upon release. It also won the Grammy for Album of the Year. It debuted on the US Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 1.287 million copies and became the fastest-selling album by the end of the year.