Taylor Swift's The Tortured Poets Department emerged atop the Billboard 200 albums chart after a close fight with Billie Eilish's HIT ME HARD AND SOFT.
According to Billboard, Swift's The Tortured Poets Department scored a fifth week atop with 378,000 equivalent album units in the United States.
Notably, the huge number gain was bolstered by releasing six new digital album variants and a new CD variant. The four deluxe CD editions and the signed CD edition of the album were also replenished, thus, the additional gain.
Of the album's huge number, album sales are at a high with 210,000 units, making it the week's top-selling album. Meanwhile, streaming was down with 166,500 units for 216.9 million official streams on the whole album. Track units scored a meager 1,500 units.
The Tortured Poets Department was the first album to score five consecutive weeks atop the Billboard 200 since Morgan Wallen's One Thing At a Time spent 12 consecutive weeks from March to June 2023. The album also raked in the biggest five-week album unit sum since Adele's 25 generated 1.193 million units in 2016.
Holding the top spot for the fifth time in a row, Swift widened the gap between her and Elvis Presley for the most number of weeks at No. 1 by any soloist in music history. The King of Rock and Roll only has 67.
Swift's triumphant win meant she won the close fight against Eilish's HIT ME HARD AND SOFT album debut.
Luminate recorded that Eilish's highly-anticipated album debuted with 339,000 equivalent album units. The album debut becomes Eilish's biggest week ever in her music career.
Of 339,000 album units, 191,000 units comprised her album sales. Of the album sum, 90,000 are accounted for vinyl sales, making it her biggest week for vinyl ever. Streaming comprised 166,500 units, while track units were only 1,500.
People on social media have theorized that Swift and Eilish were feuding after the two allegedly threw shots at each other.
Eilish had previously spoken out about artists releasing multiple CD and vinyl variants, which many believe is a jab toward Swift. The "bad guy" singer issued a statement clarifying her stance on the issue. Many also noted that Swift had suddenly dropped new album variants on the same day that Eilish had released her album, effectively blocking her No. 1 debut.
Recently, Eilish described 3-hour concerts to be "psychotic," which many seemed to think was another shade toward Swift.
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