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Just How Many Records Did The Tortured Poets Department Break During Its First Week?

Author Melanie Day

Taylor Swift has been shattering sales numbers for most of her career. And The Tortured Poets Department is no exception. Ahead of the release of 2010’s Speak Now there was a lot of chatter about could she break the million mark in a week. Something that hadn’t been done in years, and that the industry questioned if would ever happen again. Spoiler- she did, and has continued to do it.

Since that time, the star has only gotten bigger with an even larger appeal. Something I still haven’t been able to wrap my head around. I’ve watched it all in real-time, and the popularity that she has maintained as well as gained before and since the start of the Eras Tour has been truly mind-blowing.

The Tortured Poets Department

So I knew the numbers for The Torturned Poets Department which was released Friday, April 19th would be big. I even expected it to be the biggest debut of her career. She’s truly ascended to new heights (pun not intended but also not avoided) unlike anything I’ve seen in my lifetime.

But I didn’t expect them to be THIS big. The Tortured Poets Department sold an impressive 2.61 million equivalent album units. This metric, which is used in the streaming era is comprised of physical album sales as well as streaming equivalent albums.

Streaming Equivalent Albums or SEA according to ChartData are “calculated by adding up all of the audio song streams from an album. Premium streaming totals are divided by 1,250 and free streaming totals are divided by 3,750. Thus, 1,250 premium streams or 3,750 free streams from the same album is equivalent to 1 album unit.”

That impressive number marks the highest first week (or any week) sales of Swift’s now 18+ year career. And the 2nd largest week (by equivalent albums earned) since it began being tallied in 2014.

Adele’s 25 is the highest with Taylor holding the other top 5 spots. That is for The Tortured Poets Department (2), 1989 (Taylor’s Version) (3rd), Midnights (4th), and reputation (5th). Swift has two other releases in the top 10 2019’s Lover at 9, and 2020’s Folklore at 10.

It’s also her 7th album (as alluded to previously) to reach that million mark in its first week. Something I know Swift is incredibly proud of. The six others are Speak Now (2010), RED (2012), 1989 (2014), reputation (2017), Midnights (2022), and 1989 (Taylor’s Version) (2023). She’s the only modern artist to accomplish that feat.

Additionally, it is her 14th number-one debut. And with that, she ties Jay Z for the most for a solo artist. The only act she trails? The Beatles, who have 19.

It’s reasonable to expect the two remaining Taylor’s version re-records Taylor Swift (Taylor’s Version) and reputation (Taylor’s Version) both yet to be formally announced, will also debut at number one. Which would give her ownership of the solo record and leave her just three releases behind The Beatles.

Of that monster 2.61 million number, an impressive 1.914 of that number was traditional album sales. This means even completely omitting streaming it was still the biggest debut of her career. That’s insane to think about.

1.914 represents the third-largest sales week in the modern era (behind Alele and NSYNC). According to Billboard, that number breaks down to 859,000 vinyl, 759,500 CDs, 21,500 cassettes, and 274,000 digital download purchases.

And that’s still not all the history made by The Tortured Poets Department. Swift’s latest release marks the largest streaming week in history with 891.37 million official streams. The previous record holder was Drake with 745.92 million in 2018. Midnights was her highest with 549.26 million in 2022.

859,000 records sold gave The Tortured Poets Department the biggest week for vinyl sales in the modern era. In fact, on that list, she occupies 4 of the top 5 spots. In addition to The Tortured Poets Department at number one, the top 5 include 1989 TV, Midnights, and Speak Now TV respectively, Harry Styles Harry’s House is 5th. Red TV and Evermore are also found in the top 10.

And finally, for now, The Tortured Poets Department made Taylor Swift the 1st artist in history to occupy the entire top 14 simultaneously on the Top 100. Swift called the achievement “unbelievable”.

I couldn’t be more proud of Taylor and watching her put out incredible albums time and time again, and continue to break record after record. She’s been my personal favorite artist and backed that up by being an incredible human being for the last 17 years.

I don’t know what her peak is, but every time I’ve thought she couldn’t get any bigger she eclipsed that. The more I listen to The Tortured Poets Department, the more I fall in love with the album. It really is some of the best work of her career.

While The Tortured Poets Department has already shattered records, I think there are still many things left for it to accomplish. And accolades and trophies for Taylor to put on her shelves as well. And I can promise you I’ll be here cheering her on for all of it.

Chart data is according to Billboard.

Melanie Day is a graduate of North Carolina State University. She has worked for Beasley since 2012 in a variety of behind-the-scenes roles in both digital and promotions. Melanie writes about a diverse range of topics some of her favorites include travel, restaurants, Taylor Swift, and college athletics. When not at work you'll find her at a country concert or NC State sporting event.

All Of Taylor Swift's 1st Week Album Sales Numbers

I often see and hear the phrase “Taylor Swift is the music industry”. And while this self-proclaimed die-hard fan will even admit that’s a bit of a stretch (I mean I’ve worked in and around it for years), she certainly sets the standard for the music industry. This is especially true when it comes to Taylor Swift album sales. And this is something she’s been able to consistently do that throughout her career.  If you doubt that then you’re simply in denial.

Over the 18 years she’s been releasing music she’s been able to consistently pull in sales numbers that the majority of other artists just don’t see. This was true in the 2010s when physical album sales were declining. But she went on a 4 album streak of 1 million + debuts. In fact, she holds the record for the most albums that have sold at least one million copies in a single week, with six.

RELATED: Ranking The 13 Best Taylor Swift Songs Ahead Of The Tortured Poets Department Release

This is why I have no doubt her upcoming album (less than 11 hours to go but who’s counting) The Tortured Poets Department will not only debut at number one but handily so.

And since my thoughts today are one hundred percent dominated by Taylor Swift and quite literally nothing else I figured what better way to pass the time than to look at Taylor Swift’s first-week album sales throughout her career. Taylor has had 14 true album debuts including 10 unique studio albums and 4 Taylor’s Version re-records. Below you will find a ranking of each of those 14 albums’ first-week sales from lowest to highest.

I have a feeling in another week we will be editing this list, and I would not be surprised at all if we have a new number one when it comes to Taylor Swift album sales debuts. The anticipation for The Tortured Poets Department feels different (at least for me personally) and I’ve done this whole Taylor Swift album release day thing 13 times now. I truly feel as though this may be one of my favorite albums of hers of all time.

Ranking 1st Week Taylor Swift Album Sales Throughout Her Career

  • 14. Taylor Swift (2006)

    Taylor Swift

    Taylor’s lowest first week debut was her debut album Taylor Swift which was released October 24, 2006. It sold 40,000 copies that first week which for a brand new 16-year-old country artist wasn’t bad. And it only went up from there. To date, it is one of her best-selling albums having sold more than 5.8 million copies.

  • 13. Fearless Taylor's Version (2021)

    This one surprised me but the first “Taylor’s Version” project Fearless (Taylor’s Version) notched first-week sales of 179,000 making it her second-lowest debut. In the era of streaming pure sales numbers are harder to come by than they originally were. Combined with a backlog of vinyl production which also was most likely a factor. But as we will see later you can still get huge numbers in this day and age.

  • 12. Evermore (2020)

    Evermore was Taylor’s second album to surprise drop in 2020 in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was released two days before her 31st birthday on December 11, 2020. Despite having zero promo other than a day’s notice and far fewer album variants of her other 2020 release Folklore, Evermore sold 329,000 copies in its first week. The album still somewhat flys under the radar to this day though I can’t understand why!

  • 11. Red Taylor's Version (2021)

    The second Taylor’s Version project Red was released November 12, 2021. Despite the release of this album seemingly being that catalyst behind the absolute phenomenon that has become Taylor Swift these days (yes she’s always been one of the biggest artists on the planet but the last few years have been unlike ANYTHING this 17 year fan has seen or even thought was possible), it only sold 369,000 copies in that first week. But that number is now well over 3 million, it just took a little time for people to jump on board I guess. Heck I feel like I listened to All Too Well 10 minute version 369,000 times that first week!

  • 10. Speak Now Taylor's Version (2023)

    There was an almost two-year break in Taylor’s Version releases. We got Midnights first and the Eras Tour. But while on the tour in Nashville, she announced the next TV project Speak Now Taylor’s Version would be released on July 7th of 2023. I feel like Speak Now, while a fan favorite, is also a little bit underappreciated when it comes to Taylor’s discography. Perhaps even by her as the Speak Now era on the Eras Tour initially only featured one song “Enchanted” that was never a single. Despite that, it sold 507,000 copies that first week debuting as Gold certified. Something that doesn’t happen often for most artists. But something Taylor does consistently.

  • 9. Fearless (2008)

    Fearless Album Cover

    Quite a jump from her debut album release week, Fearless sold 592,000 copies it’s first week. The album was released on November 11, 2008, on the heels of a successful lead single “Love Story”. This would be the last album to not debut at over 1 million before a streak of her next 4 releases.

  • 8. Folklore (2020)

    Surprise dropping an album was something I never imagined Taylor doing but the morning of July 23rd I woke up to the news that the following day Taylor would be dropping an album called Folklore. The project born out of the isolation of the pandemic would sell 846,000 copies despite less than 24 hours of promotion. It would also secure her third Grammy win for Album of the Year and is one of her most critically acclaimed albums ever.

  • 7. Lover (2019)

    2019’s Lover was the first Taylor album following her fallout and departure from Big Machine Records, and the first album she had ownership of. The album would sell 867,000 copies in it’s first week. And it’s continued to grow in popularity spawning a number one single “Cruel Summer” the summer of 2023 4 years after the album’s release.

  • 6. Speak Now (2010)

    Speak Now

    Released October 25, 2010, Speak Now marked Taylor’s first 1 million debut just edging that mark with 1.047 million albums sold. This came at a point when physical album sales had been trending downward. And truly demonstrated the power Swift had over the industry even at the age of 20.

  • 5. Midnights (2022)

    In October of 2022, Taylor proved that her album sales are still a force to be reckoned with. Midnights, released October 22nd debuted with 1.140 million first-week sales, her first album to accomplish this feat since 2017.

  • 4. Red (2012)

    RED

    Taylor continued her streak of 1 million albums sold in a week with 2012’s Red, her last album classified as country. Fueled by pop hits however including the lead single “We Are Never Getting Back Together” RED debuted on the charts selling 1.208 million albums, her largest debut at the time.

  • 3. Reputation (2017)

    Following some negative publicity and literally disappearing for a year Taylor finally made her return in 2017. She announced Reputation in August and the album was released in November selling 1.216 million copies in that first week. Not bad for someone they tried to tell us was washed up. The promo for the album was minimal as well, almost all coming from Swift who wanted to control the narrative about her “Reputation”.  It also led to her first full-blown Stadium Tour.

  • 2. 1989 (2014)

    1989

    1989 was Taylor’s first album classified as pop and it marked a huge era in her life. It was her biggest debut until (spoiler) the re-release of the same album would outsell it. 1989 sold 1.287 million albums in the first week.

  • 1. 1989 Taylor's Version (2023)

    And the biggest first-week debut? Her most recent release 1989 Taylor’s Version with 1.359 million albums sold in one week. Proving she is showing no signs of slowing down!

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Author Melanie Day
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