Taylor Swift Makes Historic Debut at No. 1 on Billboard 200 With ‘The Tortured Poets Department’

The set launches with the largest streaming week ever for an album and marks her 14th No. 1, tying her for the most among soloists.

As expected, Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department makes a gigantic debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated May 4), securing the superstar her 14th chart-topping album. She ties Jay-Z for the most No. 1s among soloists in the nearly-70-year history of the chart. Only The Beatles, with 19 No. 1s, have more.

The Tortured Poets Department launches with 2.61 million equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending April 25, with traditional album sales (purchases of digital download albums, CDs, vinyl LPs and cassettes) comprising 1.914 million of that sum. Of that sales figure, vinyl sales represent a staggering 859,000. The collected 31 songs on the deluxe edition of the album generated 891.34 million on-demand official streams.

Those eye-popping figures mark the largest streaming week for an album ever, the second-largest week for an album (by total equivalent album units earned) since the Billboard 200 began measuring by units in December 2014, the third-largest sales week (by traditional album sales) in the modern era (since Luminate began electronically tracking sales in 1991) and the largest sales week for an album on vinyl in the modern era.

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new May 4, 2024-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on April 30. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.

Of The Tortured Poets Department’s first-week unit sum of 2.61 million, album sales comprise 1.914 million (a number bolstered by its availability across more than 20 different iterations of the album), SEA units comprise 683,000 (equaling 891.37 million on-demand official streams of the set’s 31 songs, on its deluxe edition) and TEA units comprise 14,000. (All figures are rounded.)

With 1.914 million sold, The Tortured Poets Department is instantly the top-selling album of 2024, year-to-date. The second-biggest selling album, counting weekly sales from January through the present, is Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, with 228,000 copies sold in total.

Swift announced the album during the Grammy Awards on Feb. 4, and her official webstore began accepting pre-orders for the project that same day. The set was released on April 19, alongside its first single, “Fortnight,” featuring Post Malone.

The Tortured Poets Department (abbreviated as TTPD) was initially released at midnight ET on April 19 as a standard 16-song digital download album, as well as an array of 17-song physical configurations (more details on the assorted versions later in this story). Two hours after the album’s release, Swift announced an expanded 31-song edition of the set and released it as a digital download and streaming album. She wrote: “It’s a 2am surprise: The Tortured Poets Department is a secret DOUBLE album. I’d written so much tortured poetry in the past 2 years and wanted to share it all with you, so here’s the second installment of TTPD: The Anthology. 15 extra songs. And now the story isn’t mine anymore… it’s all yours.”

Swift’s 14th No. 1 on the Billboard 200

With a 14th No. 1 album on the Billboard 200, Swift ties Jay-Z for the most chart-toppers among soloists. Overall, only The Beatles have more, with 19 leaders. All 14 of Swift’s full-length studio albums and rerecorded projects from 2008’s Fearless (her second album) through 2024’s The Tortured Poets Department have debuted at No. 1.

Here’s a look at the acts with at least 10 No. 1s on the Billboard 200, since the list began publishing on a regular, weekly basis in March 1956.

19, The Beatles
14, Jay-Z
14, Taylor Swift
13, Drake
11, Bruce Springsteen
11, Barbra Streisand
11, Ye (formerly Kanye West)
10, Eminem
10, Future
10, Elvis Presley

Largest Streaming Week Ever

The Tortured Poets Department’s collected 31 songs on its deluxe edition generated 891.37 million on-demand official streams in the week ending April 25 in the U.S. That marks the single-largest streaming week ever for an album, by total combined streams for its songs. Here’s a recap of the top 10 largest streaming weeks for albums (all were debut weeks):

Rank, Artist, Title, Streams, Chart Date
1, Taylor Swift, The Tortured Poets Department, 891.37 million, May 4, 2024
2, Drake, Scorpion, 745.92 million, July 14, 2018
3, Drake, Certified Lover Boy, 743.67 million, Sept. 18, 2021
4, Taylor Swift, Midnights, 549.26 million, Nov. 5, 2022
5, Drake, For All the Dogs, 514.01 million, Oct. 21, 2023
6, Drake & 21 Savage, Her Loss, 513.56 million, Nov. 19, 2022
7, Morgan Wallen, One Thing at a Time, 498.28 million, March 18, 2023
8, Lil Wayne, Tha Carter V, 433.02 million, Oct. 13, 2018
9, Post Malone, beerbongs & bentleys, 431.34 million, May 12, 2018
10, Juice WRLD, Legends Never Die, 422.63 million, July 25, 2020
(Streaming data source: Luminate)

Second-Largest Week, by Equivalent Album Units Earned

In December 2014, the Billboard 200 began ranking the week’s most popular albums by equivalent album units. (Previously, the chart was ranked strictly by traditional album sales.) Since that changeover, The Tortured Poets Department has the second-biggest week for any album by units earned. Here’s a recap of the top 10 biggest weeks, by units, since December 2014:

Rank, Artist, Title, Units, Chart Date
1, Adele, 25, 3.482 million, Dec. 12, 2015
2, Taylor Swift, The Tortured Poets Department, 2.61 million, May 4, 2024
3, Taylor Swift, 1989 (Taylor’s Version), 1.653 million, Nov. 11, 2023
4, Taylor Swift, Midnights, 1.578 million, Nov. 5, 2022
5, Taylor Swift, reputation, 1.238 million, Dec. 2, 2017
6, Adele, 25, 1.193 million, Jan. 9, 2016*
7, Adele, 25, 1.162 million, Dec. 19, 2015*
8, Drake, Views, 1.039 million, May 21, 2016
9, Taylor Swift, Lover, 867,000, Sept. 7, 2019
10, Taylor Swift, Folklore, 846,000, Aug. 8, 2020
(Equivalent album units source: Luminate; All weeks are debuts, except for those marked with an asterisk.)

Third-Largest Sales Week in Modern Era

The Tortured Poets Department sold 1.914 million copies in traditional album sales in its first week (purchases of digital downloads, CDs, vinyl LPs and cassette tapes). That marks the third-largest sales week for an album in the modern era — since Luminate began electronically tracking music sales in 1991.

The Tortured Poets Department’s sales were bolstered by its availability across 19 different physical configurations (nine CDs, six vinyl LPs and four cassettes, with four of the physical configurations exclusively sold by Target stores) and two digital download offerings (the standard 16-song album, and a surprise deluxe 31-song edition that was released two hours after the original album bowed). All of the variants are itemized later in this story.

Of The Tortured Poets Department’s first-week sales of 1.914 million, physical sales comprise 1.64 million (859,000 vinyl LPs — a modern-era single week record for an album on vinyl, 759,500 CDs and a little over 21,500 cassettes) and digital downloads comprise 274,000.

The Tortured Poets Department is the seventh Swift album to have sold at least 1 million copies in a single week, following the debuts of 1989 (Taylor’s Version), Midnights, reputation, the original 1989, Red and Speak Now. She is the only act with seven different albums to each sell at least 1 million copies in a single week in the modern era. In total, there have been 26 instances — by 24 different albums — in which an album has sold at least 1 million copies in a week in the modern era. One of those albums, Adele’s 25, sold more than 1 million in three separate weeks.

Six of the top 10 million-selling weeks occurred in the early 2000s, in the pre-digital and pre-streaming heyday of the CD — when essentially the only way to listen to music on-demand was by purchasing an album. The year 2000 was the high-water mark in the modern era for album sales, when 785 million albums were sold in the U.S. Comparably, in 2023, there were 105.32 million albums sold, and Swift sold the most of any act — accounting for 6% of all U.S. album sales in 2023. (Popular streaming services Spotify and Apple Music did not launch in the U.S. until 2011 and 2015, respectively.)

Here’s a recap of the top 10 biggest-selling weeks by albums in the modern era (1991-present), ranked in order by sales volume.

Rank, Artist, Title, Sales, Chart Date
1, Adele, 25, 3.378 million, Dec. 12, 2015
2, *NSYNC, No Strings Attached, 2.416 million, April 8, 2000
3, Taylor Swift, The Tortured Poets Department, 1.914 million, May 4, 2024
4, *NSYNC, Celebrity, 1.88 million, Aug. 11, 2001
5, Eminem, The Marshall Mathers LP, 1.76 million, June 10, 2000
6, Backstreet Boys, Black & Blue, 1.591 million, Dec. 9, 2000
7, Taylor Swift, 1989 (Taylor’s Version), 1.359 million, Nov. 11, 2023
8, Eminem, The Eminem Show, 1.322 million, June 15, 2002*
9, Britney Spears, Oops! …I Did It Again, 1.319 million, June 3, 2000
10, Taylor Swift, 1989, 1.287 million, Nov. 15, 2014
(Sales source: Luminate. *All weeks are debuts, except for The Eminem Show, which debuted on the chart dated June 8, 2002, from a partial week of sales due to an off-cycle early release. The June 15, 2002, chart reflected the album’s first week of availability.)

Biggest Sales Week for a Vinyl Album in Modern Era

Swift continues to be a dominant force when it comes to vinyl album sales, as The Tortured Poets Department’s first-week vinyl figure of 859,000 is the single-largest sales week for a vinyl album in the modern era. Swift has the top four-selling weeks on vinyl, and six of the top 10-selling weeks.

Rank, Artist, Title, Sales, Chart Date
1, Taylor Swift, The Tortured Poets Department, 859,000, May 4, 2024
2, Taylor Swift, 1989 (Taylor’s Version), 693,000, Nov. 11, 2023
3, Taylor Swift, Midnights, 575,000, Nov. 5, 2022
4, Taylor Swift, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), 268,000, July 22, 2023
5, Harry Styles, Harry’s House, 182,000, June 4, 2022
6, Taylor Swift, Red (Taylor’s Version), 114,000, Nov. 27, 2021
7, Adele, 30, 108,000, Dec. 4, 2021
8, Taylor Swift, Evermore, 102,000, June 12, 2021
9, Olivia Rodrigo, Guts, 94,000, Sept. 23, 2023
10, Travis Scott, Utopia, 93,000, Aug. 26, 2023
(Sales source: Luminate; all weeks reflect albums’ first week of availability on vinyl.)

In 2023, Swift loomed so large on vinyl that her 1989 (Taylor’s Version) became the first vinyl album in the modern era to sell 1 million copies in a calendar year. Further, in 2023, Swift accounted for 7% of all vinyl album sales in the U.S. From 2021 through 2023, vinyl albums were the leading configuration for album purchases in the U.S. Vinyl was the dominant configuration for album purchases in the U.S. up until the early 1980s. After that, cassettes took hold until the early 1990s, when the CD configuration blossomed and remained king until 2021, when vinyl retook the top slot.

Recap of the Retail-Available Versions of The Tortured Poets Department

Standard 16-song digital download album (Widely available through all digital retailers.)

“The Manuscript” edition (Standard CD, deluxe CD containing Swift-branded merchandise, ghosted white-colored vinyl, Target-exclusive clear vinyl, and white-colored cassette — each with the standard album’s 16 songs plus one bonus track: “The Manuscript.” The standard CD and vinyl editions are widely available through all retailers, the deluxe CD and cassette are exclusive to Swift’s webstore. Swift also sold signed copies of the standard CD and vinyl variants exclusively through her webstore.)

“The Albatross” edition (Target-exclusive CD, deluxe CD containing Swift-branded merchandise, smoke-colored vinyl, smoke-colored cassette — each with the standard album’s 16 songs plus one bonus track: “The Albatross.” The Target CD contains a poster. The vinyl is widely available, while the deluxe CD and cassette are exclusive to Swift’s webstore.)

“The Bolter” edition (Target-exclusive CD, deluxe CD containing Swift-branded merchandise, beige-colored vinyl, beige-colored cassette — each with the standard album’s 16 songs plus one bonus track: “The Bolter.” The Target CD contains a poster. The vinyl is widely available, while the deluxe CD and cassette are exclusive to Swift’s webstore.)

“The Black Dog” edition (Target-exclusive CD, deluxe CD containing Swift-branded merchandise, charcoal-colored vinyl, charcoal-colored cassette — each with the standard album’s 16 songs plus one bonus track: “The Black Dog.” The Target CD contains a poster. The vinyl is widely available, while the deluxe CD and cassette are exclusive to Swift’s webstore.)

Deluxe 31-song digital download album (Widely available through all digital retailers. Contains the 16 songs on the standard digital album, plus the four bonus tracks that were issued on the above four variants [“The Manuscript,” “The Albatross,” “The Black Dog” and “The Bolter”] and 11 additional songs.)

Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.

By: Keith Caulfield
Originally published at: Billboard