Vinyl made a huge comeback this year, with Black Friday deals helping physical record sales see their highest peak in some time. Now Billboard reports that vinyl had its best sales week ever, with 1.842 million LPs sold in the U.S. during the week prior to Christmas, ending on Dec. 24.
That’s a historic high for vinyl since Nielsen/MRC Data began tracking sales in 1991. The former bar was set just the week before, with 1.445 million vinyl record sales between Dec. 10 and Dec. 17.
Those massive numbers come at the end of a year that’s been immensely significant for vinyl. For the first time in 34 years, LP sales eclipsed CDs for four separate weeks in 2020—all since September—which experts anticipated in 2019 when vinyl had its 12th straight year of substantial growth. In comparison, 2019 saw 18.84 million U.S. vinyl sales, 2014 saw less than 10 million, and 2007 saw less than 1 million.
Last week's best-selling LP was Paul McCartney’s latest solo album McCartney III, which moved 32,000 units, marking it as the third-biggest sales week for a vinyl record since 1991. Indie record stores also saw a boost, with a historic high of 733,000 vinyl units sold last week. Record Store Day set the previous record, with 673,000 units sold in the week ending April 11, 2019. Overall, people purchasing more vinyl records than they have since the CD era is promising for the music industry at large.
