Taylor Swift - Tortured Poets Department Black Dog press photo | Beth Garrabrant, courtesy of Republic
Expecting Taylor Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department” to debut with a massive opening week US consumption total was not exactly a hot take. But it was absolutely a correct one.
According to Hits Daily Double, the album is expected to debut with 1.8 million traditional US album sales. With units from track streams and sales included, it should close the April 19-25 tracking period with 2.4 million total US units.
Both figures would be career bests for Swift; they would also position the album as one of the biggest launches of all-time.
Though it does not appear “Tortured Poets” will break the record 3.48 million opening-week US units (3.38 million from pure sales) attained by Adele’s “25,” the album could rank in the #2-4 range on the all-time list.
The current #2 is *NSYNC’s “No Strings Attached,” which sold 2.4 million US copies in its first week. The figure only accounts for pure sales, as it pre-dates the streaming music revolution (let alone Billboard’s decision to begin including track sales and streams in the first-week total).
The current #3 is *NSYNC’s “Celebrity,” which achieved 1.9 million pure US sales in its first week.
Based on the above projections, “Tortured Poets” could potentially unseat “No Strings Attached” for #2 in debut US units. It could challenge “Celebrity” for #3 in debut US album sales.
Even if it falls short of the above projections, it would land no longer than #3 on the debut unit list or #5 on the debut sales list (at 1.76 million first-week US sales, Eminem’s “Marshall Mathers LP” is the only other album “Tortured Poets” might fail to surpass).