LOS ANGELES, April 28 (Reuters) - Pop megastar Taylor

Swift sold 2.61 million album and streaming units of "The

Tortured Poets Department" during its first week of release in

the U.S., Billboard reported on Sunday, calling it "a gigantic

debut at No. 1" on the Billboard 200 albums chart.

Traditional album sales totaled 1.91 million in the week

ending April 25 between digital download albums, CDs, cassettes

and also included 859,000 vinyl sales, Billboard said, citing

data from Luminate. The album generated 891.34 million on-demand

official streams.

The album scored the largest streaming week for an album

ever and the largest sales week for an album on vinyl in the

modern era, Billboard said. It is also the top-selling album so

far in 2024.

It was Swift's 14th chart-topping album, tying with Jay-Z

for the most No. 1s among soloists.

Swift released the first 16 tracks of "Poets" on April 19.

Two hours later, she surprised fans by revealing it was a double

album with 15 more songs.

It was the 11th studio album from the 34-year-old

record-setting singer, who won an unprecedented fourth album of

the year award at February's Grammys for "Midnights."

Last week, Spotify ( SPOT ) said "Poets" was its

most-streamed album in a single week, surpassing 1 billion

streams.

Swift also topped the British music charts on Friday,

outselling the rest of the top 10 combined and beating the

Beatles for the record of fastest artist to rack up 12 UK number

one albums.

"Poets," distributed by Universal Music Group,

received mostly positive reviews from critics and fans.

Swift will resume her Eras Tour, the highest-grossing

concert tour in history, in Paris in May.

She is among several of music's top female artists releasing

albums this spring. Beyonce's "Cowboy Carter" debuted in March,

and Dua Lipa and Billie Eilish have releases scheduled for next

month.