- November 1, 2022

Taylor Swift’s Midnights Takes Social by Storm

Taylor Swift recently broke several streaming and sales records with the release of Midnights. But how has she performed on social media?

Swift is a social media powerhouse, with over 336 million fans and followers across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok, and 48.8 million YouTube subscribers as of October 27, 20221. To put that into context, she has a bigger social audience than Rihanna, Beyoncé, Miley Cyrus, Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears, and even Kim Kardashian1.

With Midnights, the singer dominated social conversations. There were over 61.6 million actions on content mentioning her or the album in just a week following its drop2. Out of all of this total, 28.1 million actions, nearly 46%, were on Swift's own content3. Of all posts on Instagram in the US on October 20th, Swift's post performed the best with 4.8 million actions4.

Many other public figures jumped in to comment on the album release, including fellow artists Meghan Trainor, Lewis Capaldi, HAIM, and more. Influencers & celebrities other than Taylor Swift herself saw over 11.4 million engagements on related content5.

@meghantrainor ILYYY @Taylor Swift @Carly Rae Jepsen #midnights #thelonliesttime #takinitback #madeyoulook ♬ The Loneliest Time - Carly Rae Jepsen & Rufus Wainwright
@lewiscapaldi me every two seconds after listening to midnights #taylorswift ♬ original sound - Lewis Capaldi

Several brands, publishers, and organizations jumped in on the Midnights conversation as well, totaling over 22 million actions6. Some of the top posts were from NASA, The Tonight Show, and Warner Bros. Television.

@fallontonight @Taylor Swift names as many cat breeds as she can in 30 seconds! #TaylorOnFallon ♬ original sound - FallonTonight

Interestingly, many sports organizations posted content related to the album, though sports fans and pop music listeners may usually be perceived as very different audiences7. In fact, Taylor Swift fans are 4x more likely than average to engage with sports content8.

@nhlbruins When Swift drops an album: ♬ original sound - Lily (Taylor's Version)

Speaking of sports, Taylor also collaborated with the NFL to post a preview of her new album before the official release during Thursday Night Football and teased it on TikTok9.

@nfl swifties, assemble #taylorswift #midnights #tnf ♬ original sound - NFL

Comparing the engagement on social with content about Swift's projects since 2019, Midnights is second only to Red (Taylor's Version) and is the top original release10.

Album Name

Release Date

Actions - Release Date

Actions - Release Date + 5 Days

Red (Taylor's Version)

November 12, 2021

34.4m

80.1m

Midnights

October 21, 2022

26.3m

45.6m

Folklore

July 24, 2020

13.7m

21.2m

Evermore

December 11, 2020

8.8m

15.5m

Lover

August 23, 2019

8.3m

20.3m

Fearless (Taylor's Version)

April 9, 2021

7.0m

9.7m

Even if you’re not a Swiftie, it’s hard to ignore Taylor's influence on her fans, pop culture, and especially on social media.

Sources:

  1. Shareablee Data Explorer, Custom Category, Fans, Followers, and Subscribers (Latest in Date Range), Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, October 27, 2022
  2. Comscore Social powered by Shareablee Content Pulse, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, October 20-27, 2022
  3. Comscore Social powered by Shareablee Content Pulse, Taylor Swift, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, October 20-27, 2022
  4. Comscore Social powered by Shareablee Content Pulse, Instagram October 20, 2022
  5. Comscore Social powered by Shareablee Content Pulse, Influencers – All, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, October 20-27, 2022
  6. Comscore Social powered by Shareablee Content Pulse, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, October 20-27, 2022
  7. Comscore Social powered by Shareablee Content Pulse, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, October 20-27, 2022
  8. Comscore Total Digital, Top Industry Affinities, September 2022
  9. Comscore Social powered by Shareablee Content Pulse, TikTok, October 20-27, 2022
  10. Comscore Social powered by Shareablee Content Pulse, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok

Definitions:

  • Fans (Latest in Date Range), Facebook The number of people who have opted in to the specified property’s content observed on the last date of the defined time period.
  • Followers (Latest in Date Range), Twitter The number of people who have opted in to the specified property’s content observed on the last date of the defined time period.
  • Followers (Latest in Date Range), Instagram The number of people who have opted in to the specified property’s content observed on the last date of the defined time period.
  • Followers (Latest in Date Range), TikTok The number of people who have opted in to the specified property’s content observed on the last date of the defined time period.
  • Subscribers (Latest in Date Range), YouTube The number of people who have opted in to the specified property’s content observed on the last date of the defined time period.
  • Affinity A measure of how much more likely the audience of a base page would engage with a target page, compared to how likely an average user on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram would engage with that same page.
  • Actions The total number of actions (reactions, shares, comments, retweets, favorites, loves) the specified property receives during the defined time period across the combined space of Facebook, Twitter & Instagram.