Taylor Swift’s album ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ tops Billboard 200 chart.
The musical world is buzzing with excitement as The Tortured Poets Department’s latest album has shattered records, selling a whopping 1.914 million copies in its first week of release. This achievement marks the third-largest sales week for an album in the modern era, since music sales began being electronically tracked in 1991 by Luminate.
The overwhelming success of The Tortured Poets Department can be attributed to its availability in 19 different physical configurations, including nine CDs, six vinyl LPs, and four cassettes. Target stores exclusively carried four of these physical configurations, while two digital download offerings were also made available – the standard 16-song album and a surprise deluxe 31-song edition released just two hours after the original album.
Out of the 1.914 million copies sold in the first week, physical sales accounted for 1.64 million, with 859,000 vinyl LPs leading the pack. This impressive number of vinyl LP sales set a new modern-era record for an album in a single week. Additionally, there were 759,500 CD sales and slightly over 21,500 cassette sales, while digital downloads made up the remaining 274,000 copies.
This achievement adds another feather to Taylor Swift’s cap, making The Tortured Poets Department her seventh album to sell over 1 million copies in a single week. Her previous albums, including 1989 (Taylor’s Version), Midnights, reputation, the original 1989, Red, and Speak Now, have also achieved this feat. Taylor Swift stands as the only artist with seven different albums, each surpassing 1 million copies in a single week in the modern era. Overall, there have been 26 instances, involving 24 different albums, where an album has sold at least 1 million copies in a week in the modern era. Adele’s album 25, for example, surpassed 1 million copies in three separate weeks.
While the early 2000s saw six of the top 10 million-selling weeks primarily due to the dominance of CDs as the main source of music consumption, the landscape has significantly shifted with the rise of digital and streaming platforms. In 2000, a staggering 785 million albums were sold in the U.S., compared to 105.32 million albums in 2023. Taylor Swift emerged as the top-selling artist, accounting for 6% of all U.S. album sales in 2023, a testament to her enduring popularity. It’s worth noting that popular streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music were introduced in the U.S. much later, in 2011 and 2015, respectively.
Here is a rundown of the top 10 biggest-selling weeks by albums in the modern era, ranked by sales volume:
1. Adele – 25: 3.378 million sales on Dec. 12, 2015
2. *NSYNC – No Strings Attached: 2.416 million sales on April 8, 2000
3. Taylor Swift – The Tortured Poets Department: 1.914 million sales on May 4, 2024
4. *NSYNC – Celebrity: 1.88 million sales on Aug. 11, 2001
5. Eminem – The Marshall Mathers LP: 1.76 million sales on June 10, 2000
6. Backstreet Boys – Black & Blue: 1.591 million sales on Dec. 9, 2000
7. Taylor Swift – 1989 (Taylor’s Version): 1.359 million sales on Nov. 11, 2023
8. Eminem – The Eminem Show: 1.322 million sales on June 15, 2002
9. Britney Spears – Oops! …I Did It Again: 1.319 million sales on June 3, 2000
10. Taylor Swift – 1989: 1.287 million sales on Nov. 15, 2014
The music industry continues to witness remarkable milestones with Taylor Swift’s exceptional sales figures, showcasing her unparalleled influence and talent in the contemporary music scene.
