Beyoncé's Surprise Album Makes Historical Debut at No. 1 After Breaking iTunes Record

Photo Courtesy beyonce.com/Frank Micelotta

After surprising fans and the music industry alike with her unannounced self-titled album last Thursday night, Beyoncé has not only achieved a career landmark and broken an iTunes record, but she's made history.

As of Tuesday evening, Beyoncé has officially debuted at No. 1 on this week's Billboard 200, making the singer the first woman to reach No. 1 with her first five studio albums.

As we previously reported, the record sold 550,000 units in its first two days. That alone gave the singer her best debut and best sales week ever (although it was hardly even a full week), breaking her previous record of 541,000 copies of 2006's B'Day.

Ultimately, the album sold a whopping 617,000 copies in the very small window of three days, reaching the tally by the end of the weekly tracking period on Sunday evening. The sum also broke an iTunes one-week record previously set by Taylor Swift's Red when it sold 465,000 in October 2012.

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Currently an iTunes exclusive bundle, the album will be available for single-track purchases starting this Friday, when it also shifts to additional digital outlets and physical distributers.

According to Billboard, Beyoncé's new record is only the second digital-only album to hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200, following the 2010's all-star live charity album Hope For Haiti Now, which started at No. 1 with 171,000 downloads sold.

New records from Childish Gambino and R. Kelly are also expected to fill out the Billboard 200 this week.