Taylor Swift’s ‘Tortured Poets Department’ poised to top her sales records next week

Taylor Swift is already breaking hearts and breaking records since she released “The Tortured Poets Department,” but it’s only just the beginning.

Taylor Swift is already breaking hearts and records since she released “The Tortured Poets Department,” but to what extent she’s done the latter will be known in more detail when full sales figures for the album are released next week. In short: It could be historically big. The all-encompassing Billboard 200 albums chart and the Billboard Hot 100 songs charts that will include data on the first-week performance of “Tortured Poets” won’t come out until April 28 and April 29, respectively, but here’s what we do know: The mega 31-song surprise double album released on Friday has since drawn impressive streaming numbers and became her biggest first-week sales to date, according to Billboard. Some critical reviews have been mixed, causing the New York Times to ask whether we’ve finally had too much Taylor. But Swifties, as her dedicated fans are called, are listening – and buying – regardless. “The Tortured Poets Department” (“TTPD”) sold 1.5 million copies in the US in its first three days. With just those figures alone, the album has posted the largest first-week sales of any album since Adele’s “25” sold 3.378 million copies in a week 2015. The album also topped Swift’s “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” first-week US sales (1.359 million copies) in only three days. The milestones for “Tortured Poets” may have only just begun: Among female recording artists, Swift has the most No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 albums chart with 13. If “Tortured Poets” claims the top spot in its first week, it will be her 14th album to do so. Of Swift’s 15 albums to date (11 studio albums + four re-recorded “Taylor’s Version” releases), her 2006 self-titled debut is the only album from her discography that didn’t reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200 (it peaked at No. 5).