Since its release on April 19, Taylor Swift's The Tortured Poets Department has taken over the world. And the numbers are now available to prove it.
Debuting this week at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, The Tortured Poets Department is now her 14th chart-topping album (including the multiple Taylor's Version editions). With this achievement she now ties only Jay-Z for the most number one albums by a solo artist. (The Beatles hold the record with 19.)
In the U.S. alone, Swift's 11th album sold 2.61 million equivalent album units as of April 25. This includes traditional album sales (digital downloads, CDs, vinyl LPs and cassettes) making up 1.914 million units. Most impressive is that 859,000 of those recorded sales are vinyl.
The 31-song Anthology edition of the album also generated 891.34 million on-demand official streams.
According to Billboard, TTPD experienced "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 1.914 million units sold make it the the highest-selling album of 2024 so far. By a lot. To compare, Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, which has sold 228,000 copies in total, is second.
Swift acknowledged the achievement on her social channels, sharing candid Polaroids of her with Post Malone and Florence Welch and writing, "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. Feeling completely overwhelmed. I was already so fired up to get back to the tour but you doing THIS?? May 9th can’t come soon enough 🤍"
See the post below.
My mind is blown. I’m completely floored by the love you’ve shown this album.
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) April 28, 2024
2.6 million ARE YOU ACTUALLY SERIOUS?? Thank you for listening, streaming, and welcoming Tortured Poets into your life. Feeling completely overwhelmed.
I was already so fired up to get back to the tour… pic.twitter.com/L7lS7WTa2Y