Taylor Swift - The Bolter press photo by Beth Garrabrant, courtesy of Republic Records
An album sales race that spurred considerable debate has reportedly ended in favor of Taylor Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department.”
According to Hits Daily Double, the album sold another 207K US copies during the May 17-23 tracking period. With units from track sales and streams included, the album generated 375K in total US consumption.
That consumption figure should earn “Tortured Poets” a fifth consecutive week atop the Billboard 200.
Billie Eilish’s new “HIT ME HARD AND SOFT” should take second place, courtesy of its 330K US units (186K from sales). Though not enough to dethrone the Swift album, the total markedly tops mid-week projections — and ranks as the best for an Eilish album.
As noted, this week’s album race was a major focal point of online discussion. The week opened with Swift releasing new variants of her album — a move that was likely to boost sales and potentially keep “Tortured Poets” in the mix for #1. As the week progressed, Eilish shared alternate recordings and aggressively discounted the album — moves that would provide “HIT ME” with a sales boost of its own. Fans of each artist passionately debated the respective efforts, creating a sense of competition (albeit one never directly addressed by either artist) rarely seen on the charts.