By Taylor Swift Department of Tormented Poets closes a fifth consecutive and overall week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated June 1), as the title gained 378,000 equivalent US album units in the week ending May 23 (up 45%), according to Luminate . The set recorded its first weekly gain in units following the release of six new digital album download variants and a new CD variant, along with a restock of the four deluxe CD editions and the signed CD edition of the album — all sold exclusively on her online store Swift.
Poets is the first album to spend its first five weeks at No. 1 since Morgan Wallen One thing at a time led for the first 12 weeks a year ago (March 18-June 3, 2023 dated chart).
With 378,000 points earned PoetsIn its fifth week, the set marks the longest fifth week for any album by Adele 25 collected 1.193 million units in the fifth frame (chart dated January 9, 2016).
Swift adds to her 74th career week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, extending her record among solo artists. (Elvis Presley has the second most among soloists, with 67.) The total includes her 14 leaders. (He's tied with Jay-Z for most No. 1s among solo artists.)
Also in the top 10 of the new Billboard 200, Billie Eilish's new studio album Hit with hard and soft debuts at No. 2 with 339,000 equivalent album units — its biggest unit-earning week ever. Of that amount, 191,000 are traditional album sales – her best sales week yet.
Notably, with the No. 1 and No. 2 albums both surpassing 300,000 units, it's the first time two albums have cleared 300,000 in the same week in eight years. (More on that later in the story.)
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the US based on multimetric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units include album sales, track album equivalents (TEA) and streaming album equivalents (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale or 10 individual tracks sold from an album or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 official paid/subscription audio and video streams generated from songs from an album. The new chart dated June 1, 2024 will be posted in full on Advertising signon the user's site on May 29 — one day later than usual due to the US Memorial Day holiday on May 27. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
Of Department of Tormented PoetsFifth week total of 378,000 albums, album sales total 210,000 (up 413%, making it the best-selling album of the week at No. 1 on Top Albums Sales). Millions of official on-demand streams of the deluxe album's 31 songs are also No. 1 on the Top Streaming Albums chart) and TEA units consist of 1,500 (down 17%).
Department of Tormented PoetsThe album's week-over-week increase was supported by continued strong sales of the 20-plus existing different iterations of the album, and an added boost during the tracking week from the restocking of some versions in Swift's store, along with the release of a handful of new variations (all were only available to US customers).
During the tracking week, Swift released six new digital album download variants of the album through her online store, and all were available for a limited time for $5.99 each. Each contained the original standard album listing of 16 songs, along with a unique bonus track. There were three versions with a recording of a “first draft of a telephone memo” (“Who's Afraid of My Old Man?”, “Cassandra” or “The Black Dog”). There were also three versions with one live recording each from her recent performances in Paris during The Eras tour (“loml”, “My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys” and “The Alchemy x Treacherous Mashup”).
In the week ending May 23, Department of Tormented Poets sold 77,000 digital albums (across all available iterations of the set, both new and old) — a gain of 1,184% compared to the previous week (6,000).
Also new in the tracking week were sales from a new CD variant of the album, sold exclusively on Swift's online store, which contained the standard 16-song album plus a new bonus track, an acoustic version of the album's “But Daddy I Love Him.” The CD went on sale for $7.99 for 24 hours on May 9. When customers ordered the album, no shipping date was listed on Swift's store. other similar web-based retailers are calculated in the chart in the week they ship to customers.)
The album was also helped by restocking Swift's online store with five previously available versions of the CD: a signed edition and four deluxe CDs. The signed album was on sale on Swift's online store from May 14-16 for $25, and no shipping date was listed at the time of purchase. The four deluxe CDs (in a blister pack, featuring branded merchandise) were available for purchase from May 7-8 for $17.99 each, with a shipping date of “on or before May 31, 2024” noted at the time of the sale.
In the week ending May 23, Department of Tormented Poets sold 121,000 copies on CD (across all CD iterations) — a 564% gain compared to the previous week (18,000). (The album's vinyl sales fell 29% in the tracking week to 12,000, from 17,000 the previous week).
At No. 2 on the new Billboard 200, Billie Eilish's new studio album Hit with hard and soft debuts with 339,000 equivalent album units earned — Eilish's biggest week ever. Of that amount, album sales comprise 191,000 (her best sales week), SEA units comprise 166,500 (equal to 193.93 million official on-demand streams of the set's 10 songs), and TEA units comprise 1,500 . Specifically, of the 191,000 sold, vinyl sales accounted for 90,000 — Eilish's best vinyl sales week ever.
Eilish's previous high mark in terms of equivalent album units was her debut When we all fall asleep, where do we go? in 2019, when it recorded 313,000 units. Its previous best-selling week was also its first frame When we all sleepwith 170,000.
The new set is Eilish's third to reach the chart's top two spots (and top 10), having previously charted with Happier than ever (in 2021) and When we all sleep.
Sales of the new album were supported by its availability in nine vinyl editions of the album (in various colors — some exclusive to specific retailers; one of the editions was signed and sold only on Eilish's online store — all with the same track listing), four CD editions (a standard CD, a signed CD sold in her online store, a splash CD sold in her online store, where Eilish splashed paint on the CD booklets en masse and then assembled them into their packaging, and a Target-exclusive CD that featured a poster ), a cassette tape, a standard digital album, and three deluxe digital sets (a standard digital album with 10 individual vocal tracks of the album's 10 songs, a version with 10 sped-up bonus versions, and a version with 10 bonus 'slow and reverb' versions). The deluxe digital edition with individual vocals sold for $9.99 while the other two iterations sold for $6.99 (and were only available for a limited time).
Ailis announced Hit with hard and soft On April 8th. The set was not preceded by any singles or pre-release music — though she did tease a few snippets in some of her interviews and performances. On May 15 and 16, he held two listening events at the Barclays Center in New York and the Kia Forum in Inglewood, California. In addition, AMC Theaters presented a listening event on May 16–17 in over 100 theaters in the U.S. On May 17, the day of the album's release, Eilish released an official music video for the set's “Lunch”. A world tour in support of the new album was announced on April 29 and will begin on September 29, with dates scheduled through July 2025.
With the two of them Department of Tormented Poets and Hit with hard and soft surpassing 300,000 equivalent album units each, marking the first time two albums have each cleared 300,000 in a week in eight years. It last charted on May 21, 2016, when Drake's Views debuted at No. 1 with 1.039 million units, while Beyoncé's Lemonade fell 1-2 in its second week with 321,000 units.
Morgan Wallen's top chart One thing at a time is a non-changer on the new Billboard 200 at No. 3 with 75,000 equivalent album units earned (down less than 1%). of Guna One from Wun falls 2-4 in second week (56,000, down 38%) and former Future and Metro leader Boomin We Don't Trust You sinks 4-5 (48,000, down 10%).
Wallen's former No. 1 Dangerous: The Double album nudges down 5-6 despite a 2% gain (to 45,000 equivalent album units), Noah Kahan Stick Season slides 6-7 (38,000, down 4%), Zach Bryan's chart-topping self-titled album is steady at No. 8 (38,000, up 1%), former SZA leader warning sign slips 7-9 (37,000, down 3%) and Benson Boone's Fireworks & Rollerblades slips 9-10 (33,000, down 6%).
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