Taylor Swift’s dominant run at No. 1 with “The Tortured Poets Department” is shattering records and could soon become the album with the most consecutive weeks at No. 1 since its debut, thanks to a lengthy album rollout with a strong performance on streaming, as well as numerous collectible CDs and digital versions that have helped Swift beat back any competition and maintain the top spot.

“The Tortured Poets Department” has spent 11 straight weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. (Photo by … [+]

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KEY FACTS
“The Tortured Poets Department” is No. 1 for an eleventh straight week on this week’s Billboard 200 albums chart, aided by a 27% surge in sales thanks to shipments of two limited edition CDs that each contained an exclusive bonus track, Billboard reported.

The album’s eleventh week at the top ties it with “Fearless” and “1989” to become Swift’s longest-running No. 1 album on the Billboard 200, a record it may very well break next week.

To support what could be the album’s twelfth week at No. 1, Swift released limited-edition signed CDs on her online store, which quickly sold out.

Swift’s team, Taylor Nation, also posted on X it had restocked a collector’s edition of “The Tortured Poets Department” and reposted some fans who said they had completed their collections.
“The Tortured Poets Department” was an immediate commercial success, moving more than 2.6 million album-equivalent units—made up of sales and streams of individual tracks—in its first week of availability in April, becoming Swift’s biggest debut and the biggest for an album on the Billboard charts since Adele’s “25” in 2015.

HOW DOMINANT IS “THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT” ON STREAMING?
The album smashed plenty of streaming records upon its debut, becoming the first album to surpass 300 million streams on Spotify in a single day, with hit song “Fortnight” featuring Post Malone becoming the platform’s most-streamed song in a single day. Fifteen out of the album’s 16 songs have more than 100 million streams on Spotify, and three months after release, the album ranks No. 2 on Spotify’s weekly albums chart.

HOW HAS SWIFT BOOSTED HER ALBUM SALES?
In the weeks since the album’s massive start, Swift has supported the album’s chart performance with various collectible and digital editions, which have boosted the album’s sales. For the album’s ninth week at No. 1 in June, Billboard reported Swift’s sales jumped 42% because of two CD variants that each contained an exclusive bonus track. Throughout May and June, Swift dropped new CDs or digital versions of the album on a near-weekly basis, with each new version accompanied by bonus tracks—often acoustic renditions of one of the album’s songs, a “first draft phone memo” demo version of a song or a live performance from one of her Eras Tour shows. She released the album with an acoustic version of “But Daddy I Love Him” on May 8, followed by three versions with three different “phone memo” tracks on May 16, three versions with three live tracks on May 23, two new versions with two acoustic tracks on June 1, another two versions with another two acoustic tracks on June 10, as well as several UK-exclusive digital albums on June 13. Several of these album drops roiled fans of other artists, including Billie Eilish—who is typically a streaming and sales force—and Charli XCX, whose albums were blocked from topping the charts amid Swift’s dominance with “The Tortured Poets Department.” Swift has also fended off the album debuts of Dua Lipa, Megan Thee Stallion, Bon Jovi, Gunna and more.

WHAT CHART RECORDS HAS SWIFT BROKEN?
Swift’s months-long reign atop the Billboard 200 has cemented it among the longest-ever runs at No. 1 for an album following its debut—and it could be just two weeks away from the most consecutive weeks at No. 1 for an album since its debut. This week, “The Tortured Poets Department” became one of just three albums to spend its first 11 weeks at No. 1, joining Morgan Wallen’s “One Thing at a Time,” which spent its first 12 weeks at No. 1, and Stevie Wonder’s “Songs in the Key of Life,” which topped the Billboard 200 for its first 13 weeks in 1976. Swift tied Whitney Houston’s album “Whitney” this week for the most consecutive weeks at No. 1 for an album following its debut by a female artist. Swift also extends her record as the soloist with the most weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 across all albums, with 80 weeks total, placing her only behind the Beatles, who have logged 132 weeks at No. 1, a full year’s worth of No. 1 placements ahead of Swift. “The Tortured Poets Department” is the album with the third-most weeks at No. 1 this decade, just two behind Bad Bunny’s “Un Verano Sin Ti” and six weeks behind Wallen’s “One Thing at a Time.” With its eleventh week at No. 1, “The Tortured Poets Department” surpassed SZA’s “SOS” to become the album by a female artist with the most weeks at No. 1 in the 2020s.

SURPRISING FACT
Though Swift’s bonus-track album releases have been associated with the chart success of “The Tortured Poets Department,” streaming made up the majority of the album’s performance on the Billboard charts every week except for the album’s debut week and its fifth week, during which Swift’s album topped Eilish’s debut week on the chart. That week, Billboard credited the “continued sturdy sales of the 20-plus existing different iterations of the album” as well as six new digital album editions, causing her album sales to surge 400% over the week prior. Swift still topped the streaming albums chart over Eilish’s new release.

FORBES VALUATION
Forbes estimates Swift to be worth $1.3 billion as of Monday afternoon, making her the first musician to make the billionaire ranks based primarily on music sales and performances. She became a billionaire in October 2023, largely thanks to the success of her Eras Tour.