OAN’s Elizabeth Volberding
2:00 PM – Monday, April 29, 2024
Taylor Swift’s newest album, The Tortured Poets Department, made a significant debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, dated May 4th, and has now earned the pop star her 14th album to reach the top of the charts.
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On Sunday, Swift’s 31-song double album sold 2.61 million “equivalent album units” in the United States in the week ending on April 25th, according to Billboard, and debuted at No. 1 on the comprehensive Billboard 200 albums chart.
In the nearly 70-year history of the chart, she is tied with rapper Jay-Z for the most No. 1’s among solo artists, and the Beatles are the only band with more No. 1s (19).
The Tortured Poets Department debuted with 2.61 million equivalent album units earned in the U.S. for the week ending April 25th. Of that amount, 1.914 million came from traditional album sales, which include purchases of CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, and digital download albums.
Vinyl sales account for an astounding 859,000 of that total sales amount. The album’s 31 songs collectively received 891.34 million official on-demand streams.
“My mind is blown. I’m completely floored by the love you’ve shown this album,” Swift announced in an Instagram post. “2.6 million ARE YOU ACTUALLY SERIOUS?? Thank you for listening, streaming, and welcoming Tortured Poets into your life. Feeling completely overwhelmed.”
The significant numbers indicate that this was the most profound album streaming week in history, the second-highest album sales week (based on total equivalent album units earned) since the Billboard 200 started tracking by units in December 2014, the third-highest album sales week (based on traditional album sales) in the modern era (since Luminate started electronically tracking sales in 1991), and the highest vinyl album sales week in the history of the industry.
Among female music artists, Swift has the most No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 albums list.
The fact that 14 of Swift’s 15 albums, including 11 studio albums and four re-recorded “Taylor’s Version” releases, have achieved the No. 1 position makes her music notable in terms of popularity.
The album not only out performed at the top of the charts, but Swift also had her highest first-week sales to date. Prior to last year, 1989 (Taylor’s Version) had that distinction after selling 1.359 million copies in the U.S. during its first week of release.
The Tortured Poets Department had the second-highest single-week sales based on units earned, a metric that Billboard started using in 2014 to take into consideration the growing popularity of streaming. Adele’s album “25” sold an astounding 3.482 million copies in 2015.
According to Billboard, Swift also achieved the greatest sales week for a vinyl album in recent times with 859,000 vinyl copies of The Tortured Poets Department. Six vinyl variations were issued by Swift; four of the variants, “The Manuscript,” “The Albatross,” “The Bolter,” and “The Black Dog,” each contained a different additional track.
On Monday, Swift secured the top 14 positions on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, demonstrating the sustained strength of her new album. “Fortnight,” her lead single with artist Post Malone, peaked at number one.
Since its release on April 19th, The Tortured Poets Department has also broken all previous records on the three major music streaming services: Apple Music, Spotify, and Amazon Music. It became the first album on Spotify to receive over 300 million streams in a single day and one billion streams in a single week.
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