The smashed records department: Taylor Swift makes history on Billboard 200 and Hot 100 with ‘Tortured Poets’

Daniel Montgomery
·2 min read
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Taylor Swift‘s new album “The Tortured Poets Department” was expected to be a blockbuster, but it was even more dominant than one might have expected, smashing records on the Billboard 200 and the Hot 100. Read more about her album achievements here and her singles achievements here on Billboard.com.

“Tortured Poets” achieved an astonishing 2.61 million equivalent album units (the second most ever recorded since Billboard started measuring equivalent album units in 2014) based on its combined record sales, individual track sales and online streams. Of that total, traditional album sales accounted for 1.914 million (the third largest sales week since Luminate started tracking in 1991). Streaming accounted for 683,000 units (the biggest streaming week of all time).

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But wait, there’s more. This also marks her 14th number-one album, which ties her with Jay-Z for the second most number-ones of all time and the most for a solo artist. The only act with more are The Beatles with 19. And over on the Billboard Hot 100, where her last album of new material “Midnights” was the first ever to dominate the entire top 10, “Tortured Poets” was like, “Hold my beer.” The surprise double album launched all 31 tracks onto the chart, including all of the top 14 positions. She has now tallied up 59 top 10 hits, the most among women.

Those singles were led by “Fortnight” featuring Post Malone, which became Swift’s 12th number-one hit. That ties her for sixth place with Madonna and The Supremes. The only artists with more chart-topping songs are The Beatles (20), Mariah Carey (19), Rihanna (14), Drake (13) and Michael Jackson (13). At this rate Swift will probably announce a 100-track superalbum just so she can monopolize the entire singles chart for a week … not to give her any ideas.

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