NCT 127 Notches Fifth Top 10 on Album Sales Chart With ‘Ay-Yo’
Written by djfrosty on March 16, 2023
NCT 127 notch their fifth top 10-charting set on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated March 18) as Ay-Yo: The 4th Album Repackage debuts at No. 2. It’s the fifth total, and consecutive, top 10-charting effort for the pop ensemble. All five have peaked within the top two positions of the chart.
NCT 127 last debuted on Top Album Sales with their fourth album, 2 Baddies, last year. That set was later repackaged, had three new bonus tracks added, and retitled as Ay-Yo. It initially reached streamers and digital retailers in January, but its CD release didn’t happen until March 3.
Ay-Yo sold 29,000 copies in the U.S. in the week ending March 9, according to Luminate. CDs comprise effectively all of Ay-Yo’s sales for the week. Like many K-pop releases, the CD configuration of Ay-Yo was issued in collectible deluxe packages, each with a standard set of items and randomized elements (covers, photocards, posters, stickers). The album was not available in any other physical format.
Also in the top 10 of the new Top Album Sales chart, Morgan Wallen, Kali Uchis, De La Soul, Macklemore and Daisy Jones & The Six all debut albums in the region.
Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
At No. 1 on Top Album Sales, Morgan Wallen lands his second leader, and best sales week yet, as One Thing at a Time bows with 111,500 copies sold. That sum easily outpaces his previous highest sales frame when his last album, the chart-topping Dangerous: The Double Album, launched with 74,000 copies sold in January of 2021.
Kali Uchis logs her first top 10 and biggest sales week as her new studio set Red Moon in Venus enters at No. 3 with 28,000 sold. Of that sum, nearly 14,000 comprise vinyl sales – enabling the set to debut at No. 1 on the Vinyl Albums chart.
De La Soul’s debut album 3 Feet High and Rising, released in 1989, enters Top Album Sales at No. 4 after the long-out-of-print set was reissued on physical formats and made its digital retail debut on March 3. The album sold 21,000 copies in the week ending March 9, with almost 14,000 of that sum from vinyl LP sales (it bows at No. 2 on the Vinyl Albums chart). On the Billboard 200, 3 Feet High and Rising originally peaked at No. 24 in 1989 but hits a new high on the March 18-dated chart, where the set re-enters at No. 15, its first week in the top 20.
Macklemore’s new album Ben bows at No. 5 on Top Album Sales, selling 14,000 copies in its first week. It’s his second solo top 10-charting set, following Gemini in 2017, which peaked at No. 2. As one-half of Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, the duo visited the top 10 twice, with This Unruly Mess I’ve Made (No. 3 in 2016) and The Heist (No. 2 in 2012).
Four former No. 1s are next on Top Album Sales, as TOMORROW X TOGETHER’s The Name Chapter: Temptation falls 4-6 (11,000; down 23%), Taylor Swift’s Midnights dips 5-7 (10,000; down 8%), Gorillaz’s Cracker Island drops 1-8 in its second week (nearly 10,000; down 80%), and P!nk’s Trustfall slips 3-9 (9,000; down 47%).
Rounding out the top 10 is Daisy Jones & The Six’s Aurora, debuting at No. 10 with 8,000 sold. The album doubles as the soundtrack to the Amazon Prime Video series Daisy Jones & the Six, about the fictional rock band of the same name. The series stars Riley Keough (as the character Daisy Jones) and Sam Claflin (The Six member Billy Dunne), who sing lead vocals on the Aurora album.
In the week ending March 9, there were 1.979 million albums sold in the U.S. (up 6.9% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 1.524 million (up 3.4%) and digital albums comprised 455,000 (up 20.4%).
There were 667,000 CD albums sold in the week ending March 9 (up 9.9% week-over-week) and 847,000 vinyl albums sold (down 1%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 6.192 million (up 1.3% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 8.815 million (up 25.6%).
Overall year-to-date album sales total 18.65 million (up 7.8% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 15.1 million (up 14.3%) and digital album sales total 3.549 million (down 13.1%).