The song sold nearly 100,000 copies in its opening week; it received positive reviews from most critics, who cited it as a highlight from the album.
Whereas, the album debuted at number five on the Billboard 200, selling over 64,000 copies in its opening week, it also charted in numerous international markets.
As the seasons dragged on, the show's winners became less and less successful, with season 13 winner Caleb Johnson's debut album only shifting 11,000 copies in its opening week to make it the lowest-selling winner's album ever.
It sold more copies in its opening week than any album in the previous 12 years, and made Swift the first and only act to have three albums sell more than one million copies in the opening release week.
China has proven to be its most successful territory where it earned $11.6 million on its opening day, going on to earn a record-breaking $67 million in its opening week and taking more money in the process than it did in the entirety of its original theatrical run.
But it has been a fantastic success in the UK, where it earned something like £1.1m in its opening week of release.
The album sold 280,000 copies in the United States in its opening week, according to Nielsen SoundScan — it was helped by plenty of television promotion and a $5 price at the Amazon MP3 store — and leads a wave of new releases on the chart.
In other countries it has reached much loftier debut positions, mostly in the top ten, such as number five in Canada where it sold approximately 10,000 copies in its opening week.
It had 37percentt fewer sales than in its opening week, but that was still almost double the album's nearest competitor this week.
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It has sold almost twice as many copies in its opening week as the fastest-selling album by a single artist - Babel by Mumford and Sons, which shifted 158,000 copies when it came out in September.
