Sales Success of “The Tortured Poets Department” Album in First Week

Taylor Swift’s latest album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” has made history with its impressive first-week sales of 1.914 million copies. This marks the third-largest sales week for an album in the modern era, since Luminate began tracking music sales in 1991.

The success of “The Tortured Poets Department” can be attributed to its availability in 19 different physical configurations, including nine CDs, six vinyl LPs, and four cassettes. Additionally, there were two digital download offerings – the standard 16-song album and a surprise deluxe 31-song edition released just two hours after the original album.

Of the 1.914 million copies sold in the first week, 1.64 million were physical sales (859,000 vinyl LPs, 759,500 CDs, and over 21,500 cassettes) while 274,000 were digital downloads. This album is now the seventh Taylor Swift album to sell at least 1 million copies in a single week, solidifying her status as the only act with seven different albums achieving this milestone in the modern era.

In a year where 105.32 million albums were sold in the U.S., Taylor Swift’s album accounted for 6% of all album sales in 2023. This achievement is even more remarkable considering the rise of streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music, which only launched in the U.S. in 2011 and 2015, respectively.

“The Tortured Poets Department” now joins the ranks of the top 10 biggest-selling weeks by albums in the modern era, with Taylor Swift making her mark alongside other music legends like Adele and *NSYNC. This album’s success is a testament to Taylor Swift’s enduring popularity and the continued appeal of physical music formats in a digital age.