© AP Photo/George Walker IV
Taylor Swift’s latest album “The Tortured Poets Department” had a truly massive debut, smashing global streaming records and demonstrating her global superstar status.
In its first week out (ending April 25th), the album was streamed a staggering 1.76 billion times worldwide according to Billboard. This sets a new record for the biggest streaming week globally since Billboard began tracking data globally in 2020.
Even more impressive, Swift has improved on her own previous record! Last year her “Midnights” album was streamed 1.16 billion times in its first week. So “The Tortured Poets Department” saw over half a billion more streams than her own past record. That’s an incredible 52% increase.
While the album’s deluxe edition contains 31 songs total compared to the original 20 on “Midnights,” Swift still would have broken the record even with just the standard 16 track version. Those songs alone racked up over 1.27 billion streams.
Though based in the US, she achieved the biggest streaming week ever outside of America as well. Her international fandom came through with 869.6 million streams from over 200 non-US territories.
Lead single “Fortnight” featuring Post Malone was an out-of-the-gate smash, debuting at #1 in countries from Australia to the UK. The song alone accounted for over 10% of the album’s mammoth total streams.
Taylor scored the top 9 spots on Billboard’s Global charts, a first for any artist. She also ties the record for the most simultaneous entries in a week with 34 songs.
