Beth Garrabrant
Taylor Swift The Department of Tortured Poets is off to a meteoric start in the United States. On its first day of release, April 19, the album sold 1.4 million copies in traditional album sales, according to early reports from data tracking company Luminate. This is Swift’s biggest sales week ever for an album in the U.S. (Luminate Powers of Sales, Streaming, and Streaming Data) Billboardthe graphics. All figures in this story are for the United States only.)
Additionally, the album’s 31 songs (available on its streaming and digital deluxe editions) generated 243.4 million official on-demand audio streams in the United States as of April 19, led by the album’s lead single. album, “Fortnight,” featuring Post Malone, with 18.4 million streams. streams. (That’s more than double the number of streams generated on the first day of the latest version of Swift, 1989 [Taylor’s Version]; its 21 songs generated 110 million streams on its opening day.)
In total, the album earned 1.6 million equivalent units in the United States on its first day. The last album to exceed a million units in one week was Swift’s 1989 (Taylor version)while it totaled 1.653 million units in its first week late last year (week ending November 2, 2023).
Further news on the album’s initial sales and streaming activity, provided by Luminate, will be announced in the coming days.
With 1.4 million copies sold across all CD, vinyl, cassette and digital download versions of the album, The Department of Tortured Poets earns biggest sales week for any Swift album. Previously, its biggest sales week was during the opening week of its re-recorded recording. 1989 (Taylor version) last year, when it sold 1.359 million copies.
The Department of Tortured Poets (abbreviated as TTP) was originally released on April 19 as a standard 16-song digital download album, as well as an array of 17-song physical configurations (more details on the different versions later in this story). Two hours after the album’s release, Swift announced a 31-song expanded edition of the set and released it as an album for digital download and streaming. She wrote: “It’s a surprise at 2am: The Department of Tortured Poets is a DOUBLE secret album. I had written so much tortured poetry over the past 2 years and wanted to share it all with you, so here is the second installment of TTPD: The Anthology. 15 additional songs. And now the story is no longer mine…it’s all yours.
Sales of The Department of Tortured Poets will increase in the coming days, with the current tracking week ending on Thursday, April 25. The album’s final first-week sales figure is expected to be announced on Sunday, April 28, along with its supposed big debut on the multi-metric Billboard. Chart of 200 albums (dated May 4). If The Department of Tortured Poets debuts atop the Billboard 200, it will mark Swift’s 14th No. 1 album, extending her record among women. She would also tie Jay-Z for the most No. 1s among soloists. The only group with more than 14 No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 is the Beatles, with 19.
Swift’s 13 Complete Studio Albums and Re-Recorded Projects from 2008 Intrepid (his second album) until 2023 1989 (Taylor version) debuted at #1.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the United States based on multimetric consumption measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units include album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA), and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit is equivalent to one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 official ad-supported audio and video streams or 1,250 official paid/subscription on-demand audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram.
Sales History: The album’s 1.4 million sales figure includes both over-the-counter and download purchases of The Department of Tortured Poets made on April 19, in addition to a likely significant number of pre-orders of the album through Internet retailers that were shipped to customers for arrival on release day. Swift announced the album during the Grammy Awards on February 4, and her official online store began accepting pre-orders for the project the same day.
After one day of sale, The Department of Tortured Poets is the best-selling album of 2024 in the United States, surpassing the 188,000 copies sold by Beyoncé. Cowboy Carter through the week ending April 11.
The Department of Tortured PoetsSales of were bolstered by its availability in 19 different physical configurations (nine CDs, six vinyl LPs, and four cassettes – including four physical configurations exclusively sold by Target stores) and two digital download offerings (the standard 16 album songs and a surprise deluxe edition of 31 songs released two hours after the bow of the original album).
Collectively, the six vinyls sold 600,000 copies on the album’s first day, already the second biggest seller. week for a vinyl album in the modern era (since Luminate began tracking sales electronically in 1991). Swift holds the record for the largest vinyl sales week of the modern era, with 693,000 copies sold. 1989 (Taylor version) on vinyl its first week.
Here is a summary of the available versions of The Department of Tortured Poets:
Standard 16-song digital album for download and streaming
“The Manuscript” Edition (standard CD, deluxe CD featuring Swift branded merchandise, white-colored ghost vinyl, Target-exclusive clear vinyl, and white-colored cassette tape – each containing all 16 songs from the standard album plus a bonus track: ” The Manuscript”. The standard CD and vinyl editions are widely available at all retailers, while the deluxe CD and cassette are exclusive to Swift’s online store. Swift has also sold signed copies of the standard CD variants and vinyl exclusively via its online store.)
“The Albatross” Edition (Target exclusive CD, deluxe CD featuring Swift branded merchandise, smoke-colored vinyl, smoke-colored cassette – each featuring all 16 songs from the standard album plus a bonus track: “The Albatross.” The CD Target contains a poster (the vinyl is widely available, while the CD and deluxe cassette are exclusive to Swift’s online store).
“The Bolter” edition (Target-exclusive CD, deluxe CD featuring Swift branded merchandise, tan-colored vinyl, tan-colored cassette tape – each featuring all 16 songs from the standard album plus a bonus track: “The Bolter.” The CD Target contains a poster. The vinyl is widely available, while the CD and deluxe cassette are exclusive to Swift’s online store.
“The Black Dog” Edition (Target-exclusive CD, deluxe CD featuring Swift branded merchandise, charcoal-colored vinyl, charcoal-colored cassette tape – each featuring all 16 songs from the standard album plus a bonus track: “The Black Dog.”) CD Target contains a poster (the vinyl is widely available, while the CD and deluxe cassette are exclusive to Swift’s online store).
31-song deluxe digital album for download and streaming (Contains all 16 songs from the standard digital album, plus the four bonus tracks released on the four variants above. [“The Manuscript,” “The Albatross,” “The Black Dog” and “The Bolter”] and 11 additional songs)
History of millions of sellers: Even though the week isn’t nearly over, The Department of Tortured Poets already experiencing the biggest sales week for an album since that of Adèle 25 bows with 3.378 million copies sold (week ending November 26, 2015). Currently, The Department of Tortured Poets has the sixth-largest week of album sales in the modern era (since Luminate began tracking sales electronically in 1991). The most important six weeks are (all first weeks): Adele’s 25 (3.378 million), *NSYNC No strings attached (2.416 million, in 2000), *NSYNC’s Celebrity (1.878 million, 2001), that of Eminem The Marshall Mathers LP (1.76 million, 2000), Backstreet Boys’ Black and blue (1.591 million, 2000) and The Department of Tortured Poets (1.4 million, 2024).
The Department of Tortured Poets is Swift’s seventh album to sell at least a million copies in a single week, following the debut of 1989 (Taylor version), Midnights, reputationthe original 1989, Red And Speak Now. They are the only group to have sold seven different albums of at least one million copies in a single week in the modern era. In total, there have been 26 cases – across 24 different albums – in which an album sold at least a million copies in a week in the modern era. One of these albums, that of Adèle 25sold over a million in three separate weeks.
Strong streaming numbers: On the album’s first day, the project’s 31 songs generated 243.4 million official on-demand audio streams. (Official video-on-demand streaming information for the project will be available in the coming days.) The album’s top five most-streamed songs, according to official on-demand audio streams, as of April 19 were: “Fortnight,” with Post Malone (18.4 million), the title song “The Tortured Poets Department” (14 million), “Down Bad” (13.3 million), “My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys” (12.7 million) and “So Long, London” (12.6 million). .
Swift’s biggest streaming week, in terms of official on-demand streams (audio and video) generated by songs from an album, is the opening week of Midnightswhich garnered 549.26 million streams for its 20 songs (week ending October 27, 2022). Midnights also has the third-biggest streaming week overall, behind Drake’s First Footage Scorpio (745.92 million in 2018) and Certified boy lover (743.67 million in 2021).