The Tortured Poets Department sold 1.914 million copies in dilapidated album sales in its first week (purchases of digital downloads, CDs, vinyl LPs and cassette tapes). That marks the third-largest sales week for an album within the trendy era — since Luminate began electronically tracking song sales in 1991.
The Tortured Poets Department’s sales had been bolstered by its availability across 19 diverse bodily configurations (nine CDs, six vinyl LPs and 4 cassettes, with four of the bodily configurations exclusively sold by Target stores) and two digital download choices (the unheard of 16-tune album, and a shock deluxe 31-tune edition that change into launched two hours after the genuine album bowed). All of the variants are itemized later in this chronicle.
Of The Tortured Poets Department’s first-week sales of 1.914 million, bodily sales comprise 1.64 million (859,000 vinyl LPs — a newest-era single week file for an album on vinyl, 759,500 CDs and a dinky bit over 21,500 cassettes) and digital downloads comprise 274,000.
The Tortured Poets Department is the seventh Swift album to acquire sold no longer lower than 1 million copies in a single week, following the debuts of 1989 (Taylor’s Model), Dumb nights, reputation, the genuine 1989, Crimson and Discuss Now. She is the entirely act with seven diverse albums to every sell no longer lower than 1 million copies in a single week within the trendy era. In entire, there were 26 cases — by 24 diverse albums — in which an album has sold no longer lower than 1 million copies in per week within the trendy era. This form of albums, Adele’s 25, sold extra than 1 million in three separate weeks.
Six of the dwell 10 million-selling weeks occurred within the early 2000s, within the pre-digital and pre-streaming heyday of the CD — when in fact the entirely formulation to listen to song on-demand change into by purchasing an album. The yr 2000 change into the high-water designate within the trendy era for album sales, when 785 million albums had been sold within the U.S. Comparably, in 2023, there were 105.32 million albums sold, and Swift sold essentially the most of any act — accounting for six% of all U.S. album sales in 2023. (Favorite streaming services and products Spotify and Apple Song failed to launch within the U.S. unless 2011 and 2015, respectively.)
Right here’s a recap of the dwell 10 greatest-selling weeks by albums within the trendy era (1991-newest), ranked in repeat by sales volume.
Imperfect, Artist, Title, Sales, Chart Date
1, Adele, 25, 3.378 million, Dec. 12, 2015
2, *NSYNC, No Strings Hooked up, 2.416 million, April 8, 2000
3, Taylor Swift, The Tortured Poets Department, 1.914 million, Might well maybe 4, 2024
4, *NSYNC, Celeb, 1.88 million, Aug. 11, 2001
5, Eminem, The Marshall Mathers LP, 1.76 million, June 10, 2000
6, Backstreet Boys, Dusky & Blue, 1.591 million, Dec. 9, 2000
7, Taylor Swift, 1989 (Taylor’s Model), 1.359 million, Nov. 11, 2023
8, Eminem, The Eminem Present, 1.322 million, June 15, 2002*
9, Britney Spears, Oops! …I Did It Again, 1.319 million, June 3, 2000
10, Taylor Swift, 1989, 1.287 million, Nov. 15, 2014
(Sales supply: Luminate. *All weeks are debuts, excluding The Eminem Present, which debuted on the chart dated June 8, 2002, from a partial week of sales attributable to an off-cycle early free up. The June 15, 2002, chart reflected the album’s first week of availability.)