Beyoncé’s just released, eponymous fifth “visual album,” is expected to top the Billboard Top 200 chart when it is officially released on Wednesday.
The album, which was released completely unexpectedly at midnight on Friday, has sold 617,000 copies on U.S. iTunes store since going on sale, easily breaking the service’s previous one week record which belonged to Taylor Swift, whose “Red” sold 465,000 copies during its debut week in October 2012.
Songs from “Beyoncé” can currently only be purchased as a set, which Billboard credits as one of the reasons for its stellar early performance. The 14-track collection also comes with 17 videos, one for each song, plus three others. Each track will be available a la carte starting on Dec. 20.
What’s most amazing about the album’s early success is that new albums are normally released on Tuesdays, giving them six days to rack up sales numbers. In only three days, Beyoncé’s should easily top this week’s other notable debut albums, R. Kelly’s “Black Panties” and Childish Gambino’s “Because the Internet.”
The album, which features her husband Jay-Z and daughter Blue Ivy, is the singer’s biggest debut ever, unseating her previous high water mark, 2006’s “B’Day,” which sold 541,000 copies during its first week. Each of the pop star’s other records were all released on Tuesdays.
“Beyoncé” is also set to become the biggest debut by a female artist since Taylor Swift’s “Red” sold 1.2 million copies last year.
As impressive as the early sales are for the new album, even more amazing, especially in an era where nearly every album leaks early, is that music fans and press were caught off guard by the its release.
Billboard also reports that the album was able to remain a secret because of code names and an ever shifting release date.
Codenamed “Lily,” “Beyoncé” only began to take its final shape in October. Employees and producers only learned of the album’s released date on Dec. 12, the day before it hit iTunes.