Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department is going to debut at No. 1 in the U.S. after its first full tracking week has finished. The newly-released full-length is destined to give the singer another champion on the Billboard 200, that much is sure. Now, the question is, how big will its debut be?
According to music industry publication HitsDailyDouble, it could be the largest of Swift’s career. If the site’s prediction is correct, The Tortured Poets Department will mark the largest debut on the Billboard 200 in years, and it will take the singer-songwriter to new heights.
HitsDailyDouble is predicting that The Tortured Poets Department will launch atop the Billboard 200 with at least two million equivalent units. That figure comes from “industry prognosticators,” though the publication doesn’t explain any further. The company regularly predicts what Billboard’s albums chart will look like days in advance of the outlet publishing the weekly rankings, and usually with surprising accuracy.
The Tortured Poets Department is on track to become Swift’s largest debut on the Billboard 200. It should outpace her most recent No. 1, 1989 (Taylor’s Version) by a sizable margin. That set opened atop the tally with more than 1.6 million equivalent units in late 2023.
The Tortured Poets Department was one of the most highly-anticipated albums of 2024, so it’s not surprising that it is slated to debut with a massive sum. The title’s length may be responsible for this career-high prediction, though the set would have gone to the top of the charts even if it had only featured a few tunes.
Swift released The Tortured Poets Department at midnight EST with 16 songs. Just two hours later, she unveiled what is essentially a deluxe edition, titled The Anthology. That project features 15 additional tunes, bringing the entire album’s length to 31 tracks.
All those 31 songs are collecting streams non-stop on platforms like Spotify and Apple
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Music as countless listeners tune in to hear the latest from the biggest star on the planet. At the same time, superfans are replaying their favorites and keeping The Tortured Poets Department on loop. Dozens of songs will help the album earn a massive streaming sum, and it may be the key to Swift’s historic opening figure.
