Taylor Swift’s “mind is blown” after her latest album hit record streaming numbers on top of selling nearly 2 million physical records in what Billboard described on Sunday as a “historic” debut.
“The Tortured Poets Department” hit No. 1 on the Billboard’s Hot 200 after it released last week. According to the music publication, Swift’s latest album sold more than 2.6 million units with in its first week, when calculating equivalent units through streaming.
Traditional album sales accounted for more than 1.9 million records across digital downloads and physical units.
“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,” the outlet wrote.
Adele’s 2015 album “25” still beats Swift’s with 3.4 million sales and *NSYNC is close behind with 2.4 million of their 2000 album “No Strings Attached.”
But Swift’s latest release also had the biggest streaming debut for an album in history. Billboard reports that the combined listening time of all 31 tracks hit 891.37 million official streams.
Swift posted a thank you to fans on X, saying that not only was her mind blown but that she was “fired up” to continue her worldwide tour in a few weeks.
“I’m completely floored by the love you’ve shown this album,” Swift wrote. “2.6 million ARE YOU ACTUALLY SERIOUS?? Thank you for listening, streaming, and welcoming Tortured Poets into your life. Feeling completely overwhelmed.”
“The Tortured Poets Department” was available in four different variants, each of which features an exclusive bonus track, on CD, cassette and vinyl. She also sold Target exclusive versions of the vinyl and CDs, as well as limited collector’s edition CDs that were sold on her website.
And Swift dropped a surprise 31-track deluxe version at 2 a.m. on April 19, which was available for digital download as well as streaming.
Her album marked a banner week for vinyl sales with 859,000 vinyl units sold. That’s the largest single-week vinyl sale for an album in the modern era, according to Billboard.
This album is the 14th No.1 album for Swift, tying her in second place with rapper Jay Z. The pair are only topped by The Beatles, who have 19 top-charting albums.
Swift has released five studio albums since 2019, as well as re-recorded four of her previous releases with exclusive new tracks in that time to gain ownership of her masters. Her prolific output has built momentum over the last few years, making her one of the biggest acts in the music industry.
Her sold-out “The Eras Tour” began in Arizona last year and will resume on May 9 in Paris, France. Fans speculated that some of her new album will be performed on stage after Swift released a video on YouTube Shorts that appeared to show her touching a rail with the logo of her album’s abbreviation, “TTPD.”
“I was already so fired up to get back to the tour but you doing THIS?? May 9th can’t come soon enough,” Swift told fans Sunday.
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