NEW YORK (AP) — Taylor Swift continues to dominate in the week following the release of her 11th album, “The Tortured Poets Department.” The 31-track album has hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, tying Swift with Jay-Z for second-most No. 1 albums at 14. Only The Beatles, with 19 No. 1 albums, have had more.
The double album has amassed 2.61 million equivalent album units in the U.S., according to Luminate, the industry data and analytics company. A shocking 1.91 million of those units come from traditional album sales — people purchasing downloads, CDs, cassettes and vinyl. Vinyl accounts for 859,000 units sold, the highest number of vinyl sales in modern history.
It is the top-selling album of 2024, eclipsing Beyoncé's “Cowboy Carter,” which sold 228,000 units. (But streaming was a boon: “Cowboy Carter” hit 407,000 equivalent album units, a combination of pure album sales and on-demand streams, earned in the U.S. in its first week.)
“The Tortured Poets Department" hit 891.34 million album streams stateside, according to Luminate, the biggest streaming week for an album in history.
She's broken the highest single-week mark for an album, passing Drake's 25-track “Scorpion” with 745.92 million in 2018, his 21-track "Certified Lover Boy" with 743.67 million in 2021, and her own “Midnights” in 2022 with 549.3 million streams.
“My mind is blown. I’m completely floored by the love you’ve shown this album,” Swift wrote on X. “2.6 million are you actually serious? Thank you for listening, streaming, and welcoming Tortured Poets into your life. Feeling completely overwhelmed.”
Last Wednesday, Spotify announced that "The Tortured Poets Department” had become the platform’s most streamed album in a single week, with over 1 billion streams globally. That was just four days after its release. On release day, the album broke the record for more streams in a single day, with over 300 million. Swift broke similar records at Apple and Amazon Music.
And by Monday afternoon, Swift had broken yet another record with tracks claiming the top 14 spots on the Billboard Hot 100. Previously, she was the only artist to ever monopolize the top 10 when her last album, 2022's “Midnights” took over the charts.
So what's in the No. 1 spot this time around? Her lead single, “Fortnight” featuring Post Malone, followed by “Down Bad,” “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart," “The Tortured Poets Department," and “So Long, London,” respectively.
Maria Sherman, The Associated Press
