By: Claire Liu

Everyone probably knows who Taylor Swift is. She’s that one popular female artist. The one with millions of weekly listeners, several hit songs, and hundreds of thousands of fans screaming at concerts. Oh, she’s popular alright. And she’s never been more popular after her new album was recently released.

Taylor Swift’s “The Tortured Poet Department” (Or TTPD) came out recently in Mid-April, and fans were over their heads excited about this new 31-track album. Like its name, TTPD’s songs were mostly Taylor conveying her tortured emotions of grief, doubt, regret, and even some depression through her lyrics. Since the ‘Poet’ in ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ is clearly representing her, Taylor made sure the album’s music flowed with poetry.

But this new mood isn’t the reason why TTPD is so significant. This album has been going for 11 weeks consecutively as Number 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart, and has never left that place since. For now, TTPD has tied the record with Taylor Swift’s other albums ‘Fearless’ and ‘1989’.

Both ‘Fearless’ and ‘1989’ have been in and out of the number 1 spot on the billboard, reaching the top about 11 total times each. What’s different about TTPD is that this album isn’t bobbing in and out of that top position. It stayed there as the most streamed, sold, and listened to album for 11 weeks straight. The album even ended up beating out new releases from other popular artists like Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, and Megan Thee Stallion. Just last week, Taylor Swift’s TTPD had about 114,000 sales just in the U.S alone, including 102 million streams and 35,000 complete package sales.

It’s truly a wonder how popular Taylor Swift’s music really is. TTPD now ranks #5 for the amount of copies sold per week for any album at 1.5 million copies, and she’s coming close to some other famous artists. Adele still holds the record, with 3.378 million copies in one week for her album 25, followed by *NSYNC‘s No Strings Attached with 2.416 million. But it’s only been 11 weeks since it was released, and while Taylor’s ‘Tortured Poets Department’ is still atop that Billboard uninterrupted, it’s a matter of time before TTPD becomes one of the most popular albums to exist.