Taylor Swift's 'The Tortured Poets Department' Poised to Have the Second-Biggest Debut Week of SoundScan Era

Taylor Swift's The Tortured Poets Department is primed to have either the second or third biggest-selling debut week since SoundScan began tracking album sales in 1991.

The last reported tally had Swift a few thousand copies behind *NSYNC's Celebrity.

Taylor Swift 'The Tortured Poets Department' Album Debut

According to Luminate, as reported by Billboard, The Tortured Poets Department has already racked up 1.8 million album units in its first five days of tracking. Album units are defined by the total traditional album sales and streaming figures that the album has earned on its tracking cycle.

The album's huge numbers came from pre-orders for the album. Reportedly the sales reflected more than 20 different editions of the album, composed of various physical and digital configurations.

The numbers recorded are only from April 19-23. The official numbers and announcement of Swift's record-shattering debut week will likely be reported on Sunday (April 28).

Nevertheless, Taylor Swift is secured to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart next week.

Taylor Swift Might Beat *NSYNC Album Milestones

With 1.8 million album units, Swift is already poised to make have fourth-biggest album debut in recent history. As of Tuesday, Swift is lagging behind *NSYNC's 2001 album Celebrity, which recorded 1.878 million units.

However, Hits Daily Double has projected that The Tortured Poets Department could clear 2.5 million units once the whole tracking week ends, putting the album second to Adele's 25 for the biggest album debut week of in recent history, pushing both NSYNC's Celebrity and No Strings Attached to fourth and third places, respectively.

Swift has already made history with Spotify, as TTPD earned the record of being the first album in streaming history to earn a billion streams within its first week of release. It also became the first in Spotify history to reach over 300 million streams in a single day.

Prior to the start of SoundScan in 1991, sales data in the U.S. was not tracked accurately.

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Taylor Swift, Billboard, Billboard 200, Adele, Nsync