“The Tortured Poets Department” is the most successful album of 2024 so far

Taylor Swift’s The “Tortured Poets” section has sold more copies than any other album so far this year, and according to Luminate’s half-year report released Tuesday morning, the tally is not particularly tight.

If you only count the pure turnover, The “Tortured Poets” section sold 2.474 million copies by the first half of 2024. Billie Eilish’s Hit me hard and soft It took second place with around 306,000 copies sold, and Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter came in third place with around 257,000 sales. The rest of the top 10 included four other Swift albums as well as Tomorrow X Togethers Mini Episode 3: Tomorrow, who finished sixth, Ateez’s Golden Hour: Part One in seventh place and Twices With You-th These nine other albums together reached about 1.924 million units, about half a million less than TTPD.

Part of this success is due to the many different TTPD variations that Swift has released, surpassing three dozen. Swift has faced criticism from some critics and fans online, who have argued that the sheer volume of releases exploits her loyal fanbase or that it is part of a tacky chart strategy to prevent other albums from dethroning her.

Luminate specifically highlighted the rise of physical album variants in its report Tuesday, noting that the trend began to grow about four years ago. The top 10 best-selling physical albums so far this year have had about seven different vinyl variants, 13 CDs and two cassettes, Luminate said. Eilish called the practice “wasteful” in an interview with Billboard earlier this year. Swift’s fan base had pushed back against the statement, and Eilish subsequently clarified that she was not denouncing any individual artist but drawing attention to the strategy overall.

“When it comes to variants, so many artists are releasing them – including ME! I say that clearly in the article,” Eilish said in April. “The climate crisis is here and it’s about us all being part of the problem and trying to make it better. Gosh.”

Swift’s sales numbers are impressive, but her latest album is also a streaming giant. With 2.753 billion streams The “Tortured Poets” section has a lead of 500 million streams over Morgan Wallens One after the other as the most streamed album in the United States in the first half of 2024.

Between sales and streams, The “Tortured Poets” section According to Luminate, the album sold a total of 4.66 million album equivalents in the first half of the year. One after the other took second place with 1.776 million, followed by Noah Kahan’s Stock season in third place with 1.224 million. Cowboy Carter is in fourth place with 1.105 million, and SZA’s SOS came in fifth place with 1.064 million.

As for individual songs, Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things” is the most successful song of the year through the first half of 2024 with 1.434 billion streams worldwide. Teddy Swims’ “Lose Control” is the second most successful song with 1.117 billion, while “Cruel Summer” is in third place with just over a billion streams. In the US alone, “Beautiful Things” remains number one with 448 million streams, while Zach Bryan and Kacey Musgraves’ “I Remember Everything” came in second with 437.3 million streams. “Lose Control” came in third with 409.7 million streams.

Luminate’s report also included data on live music, as well as the fastest-growing genres in the country. Live music accounted for 64 percent of all monthly music spending, according to Luminate. Latin, driven by Música Mexicana, was the fastest-growing genre in the U.S. based on audio streams, followed by rock, pop and country, according to Luminate.