Taylor Swift's "Tortured Poets Department" Experiences Massive Launch at No. 1 Including Record-Breaking Initial Sales
On Sunday, a double album with 31 songs made its grand debut at the number one spot on the widely recognized Billboard 200 albums chart in the US. The album managed to sell an impressive 2.61 million 'equivalent album units' during the week ending on April 25th, as per Billboard. Traditional album sales (which include the sales of digital downloads, CDs, vinyl LPs, and cassettes) contributed to 1.914 million of this total.
Swift was totally mind-blown and incredibly grateful for the love and support for her album. She expressed her gratitude on her Instagram, saying, "My mind is blown...I'm completely floored by the love you've shown this album. 2.6 million?? ARE YOU ACTUALLY SERIOUS?? Thank you for listening, streaming, and welcoming Tortured Poets into your life. I'm feeling completely overwhelmed."
"Tortured Poets" marks Swift's 14th venture as an artist to land at number one. She has now rightfully earned her place as the joint-second most No. 1 albums holder right after Jay-Z, with both artists being just a step away from The Beatles' 19 No. 1 albums.
Swift also holds the title of having the most No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 albums chart as a female recording artist. Out of her 15 total albums (11 studio albums and 4 'Taylor's Version' releases), 14 have made it to the number one position. Her 2006 self-titled album only reached as high as number 5.
Swift not only managed to top the charts with her album sales but also in her first-week sales. "Tortured Poets" broke her previous '1989 (Taylor's Version)' record, which sold 1.359 million copies in its inaugural week in the US.
With "Tortured Poets", Swift has earned the second-largest first-week sales of all time by total album units. The record is currently held by Adele's "25", which sold an astonishing 3.482 million album units in 2015.
Apart from breaking multiple records, "Tortured Poets" made history by selling 859,000 copies on vinyl in just one week. The sales for this format is the highest on record and it was made possible by Swift releasing six different vinyl variants, each containing a unique bonus track - "The Manuscript", "The Albatross", "The Bolter", and "The Black Dog".
The success of "Tortured Poets" continued on Monday as Swift held all 14 top spots on Billboard's Hot 100 songs chart. "Fortnight", her lead single featuring Post Malone, secured the number one position.
Drake is the only other artist who has managed to achieve more songs simultaneously in the top 20 of Billboard's Hot 100 songs chart than Swift. In November 2022, Drake held 15 songs in the top 20 spots. Swift had 14 songs in the top 20 during the same month.
In 2022, Swift made music history by becoming the first artist to claim all 10 spots at once on Billboard's Hot 100 songs chart with tracks from "Midnights". She has also appeared in the top five, top 10, top 20, and top 40 more than any other female artist, as per Billboard.
Swift's latest album also surpassed all historical records on Apple Music, Spotify, and Amazon music since its release on April 19th. It became the first album to achieve more than 300 million streams in a single day and the first to reach one billion streams in a week on Spotify. According to Billboard, Swift's new project recorded the largest streaming week for an album ever.
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Source: edition.cnn.com
