Morgan Wallen’s ‘One Thing at a Time’ Spends a Month at No. 1 on the Billboard 200
Written by djfrosty on April 2, 2023
Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time logs a fourth straight and total week atop the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated April 8). The title earned 197,000 equivalent album units in the United States in the week ending March 30 (down 6%), according to Luminate. One Thing at a Time debuted at No. 1 on the chart dated March 18 and has held the top spot ever since.
Across Wallen’s two No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 — One Thing at a Time and Dangerous: The Double Album — he has now spent a total of 14 weeks atop the chart. That ties Bad Bunny for the second-most weeks at No. 1 this decade, trailing only Taylor Swift’s 20 weeks (across five No. 1s). Bad Bunny’s 14 total weeks at No. 1 has come from two chart-toppers: Un Verano Sin Ti (13 weeks) and El Ultimo Tour del Mundo (one week).
The last album by a male act to spend its first four weeks at No. 1 was Wallen’s own Dangerous, which spent 10 weeks in total atop the chart — all from its debut week (Jan. 23-March 27, 2021).
Also in the top 10 of the new Billboard 200 chart, BTS’ Jimin bows at No. 2 with his debut solo album, FACE; Lana Del Rey notches her ninth top 10 with the No. 3 arrival of Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd; Luke Combs claims his fifth top 10 set with the No. 4 debut of Gettin’ Old; and Fall Out Boy achieves its seventh top 10 effort with the No. 6 launch of So Much (for) Stardust.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new April 8, 2023-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on April 4. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
Of One Thing at a Time’s 197,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending March 30, SEA units comprise 177,500 (down 8%, equaling 235.76 million on-demand official streams of the set’s 36 songs), album sales comprise 17,000 (up 36%) and TEA units comprise 2,500 (down 14%).
BTS’ Jimin sees his first solo album, FACE, bow at No. 2 on the Billboard 200. The last artist to enter as high with a first charting effort was Olivia Rodrigo, with Sour, which debuted at No. 1 on the June 5, 2021-dated chart.
FACE was led by Jimin’s first top 40-charting song as a soloist on the Billboard Hot 100, “Set Me Free, Pt. 2,” which debuted at No. 30 on the April 1-dated chart. FACE, performed largely in the Korean language, includes six total cuts: “Face-off,” “Interlude: Drive,” “Like Crazy,” “Alone,” “Set Me Free, Pt. 2” and “Like Crazy (English Version).”
FACE starts with 164,000 equivalent album units earned — the second-largest debut week of 2023 after Wallen’s One Thing at a Time’s launch of 501,000 units. Of FACE’s opening-week sum, album sales comprise 124,000 — marking the third-biggest sales week of 2023 and the largest for a solo act this year). SEA units comprise 13,500 (equaling 19.51 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs).
TEA units comprise 26,500, the largest TEA figure for any album in four months. Most of FACE’s TEA units come from the album’s current single, “Like Crazy” — which was available in five different versions (the album version — performed in the Korean language, an English-language version, two dance remixes and an instrumental) during the tracking week. All versions of the song are combined for tracking and charting purposes.
The last time an album had a bigger TEA figure in a single week when Swift’s Midnights tallied 34,000 TEA units on the Nov. 19, 2022 chart, after she released seven new hot-selling remixes of “Anti-Hero” (joining its two previously released versions — an original version and an instrumental).
Like many K-pop releases, the CD edition of FACE was issued in five collectible CD packages (including exclusives for Target and the Weverse webstore) each containing a standard set of items and randomized elements (photo cards and postcards). It was also available as a standard digital download album, plus two late-in-the-week alternative cover digital download variants that were sold exclusively through his official webstore. 79% of FACE’s first-week sales were CDs, while the remaining 21% were digital album downloads.
Jimin is the third member of seven-member South Korean pop group BTS to chart on the Billboard 200, following RM and J-Hope, who have each placed two albums on the chart. RM’s Indigo peaked at No. 3 in December 2022 and Mono. hit No. 26 in 2018. J-Hope’s Jack in the Box reached No. 17 in July 2022 and Hope World hit No. 38 in 2018.
BTS announced that it was taking a break last summer — and since then — three of its members have released solo albums (FACE, RM’s Indigo and J-Hope’s Jack in the Box). FACE is the first of the three to have CDs available the same day that the album was released to streaming services and as a digital download. J-Hope’s Jack in the Box has not been issued on CD, while RM’s Indigo got a CD release two weeks after its streaming and digital debut. (Indigo debuted on the Billboard 200 at No. 15, fell off the chart the following week, and re-entered the next week at its peak of No. 3 — powered by its CD sales).
K-pop artists typically sell well with CD albums, bolstered by their collectability. In 2022, seven of the year’s top 10-selling albums on CD in the U.S. were K-pop releases, including the year’s No. 2-seller, BTS’ retrospective compilation Proof. Further, BTS was the No. 2-selling act on the CD album format in 2022, with 917,000 copies sold of its albums on CD last year. (Swift was 2022’s top-selling artist in terms of CD albums, with 923,000 sold. She also profits from the collectability of her CDs. Her most recent album, 2022’s Midnights, was issued in a range of CD iterations — including autographed editions.)
Lana Del Rey collects her ninth top 10-charting album on the Billboard 200 as Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd debuts at No. 3. The set earned 115,000 equivalent album units in its opening week. Of that sum, album sales comprise 87,000, SEA units comprise 28,000 (equaling 36.14 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs — Del Rey’s biggest streaming week yet) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum.
Of the set’s first-week sales, vinyl LPs comprise 67% (58,500 — the largest sales week for a vinyl album in 2023 and Del Rey’s best sales week on vinyl ever). Did You Know was issues in six vinyl variants: a standard black vinyl, a picture disc and four color vinyl editions (pink, green, red and white) all with different covers, exclusive to Amazon, independent retailers, Target and her webstore, respectively. Did You Know was also issued in nine CD iterations (a standard edition, four with alternative covers, and four deluxe boxed sets exclusive to her webstore containing either a T-shirt and a CD or a hoodie and a CD). Del Rey even dropped the album on cassette tape — in five different color variants (black, white, pink, green and red).
Did You Know was previewed by three charting tracks on the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart: the title track (peaking at No. 23 in December), “A&W” (No. 10 in March) and “The Grants” (No. 45 on the April 1 chart).
Luke Combs arrives at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 with Gettin’ Old. It follows his 2022 release Growin’ Up, which debuted and peaked at No. 2. The new 18-song set is Combs’ fifth top 10, all earned consecutively, on the chart.
Gettin’ Old starts with 101,000 equivalent album units earned in its first week — surpassing the 74,000-unit bow of Growin’ Up. Of the new set’s first-week sum, SEA units comprise 66,000 (equaling 85.4 million on-demand official streams of the set’s 18 songs — Combs’ biggest streaming week ever and the third-biggest overall streaming debut of 2023), album sales comprise 32,500 and TEA units comprise 2,500.
Gettin’ Old was supported by eight physical variants of the album — two CDs (a standard version and a signed edition exclusive to his webstore), five vinyl LPs (standard black, a deluxe black edition containing a slipmat [either signed or unsigned, exclusive to his webstore], an opaque white-colored edition exclusive to Amazon and a blue-colored edition exclusive to Walmart), and a red-colored cassette tape.
Gettin’ Old is the second country album of 2023 to score a 100,000-unit-plus week, following the opening frame of Wallen’s One Thing at a Time (501,000). No country albums in 2022 posted a 100,000-plus week. In 2021, Swift’s Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version) and Wallen’s Dangerous all landed multiple 100,000-plus weeks.
Gettin’ Old was led by four charting tracks on the Hot Country Songs chart: “Growin’ Up and Gettin’ Old” (No. 20), “Love You Anyway” (No. 3), “Joe” (No. 22) and “5 Leaf Clover” (No. 15) — all through the most recently published list dated April 1.
With the Nos. 1-4 albums all exceeding 100,000 units earned on the latest chart, it’s the first time since the Aug. 8, 2020-dated list that four albums have cleared 100,000 units in a single week.
SZA’s former No. 1 SOS falls 2-5 on the new Billboard 200, earning 70,000 equivalent album units (down 3%).
Fall Out Boy’s So Much (for) Stardust debuts at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 with 64,000 equivalent album units earned, earning the band its seventh top 10-charting set. The new set is the group’s first new studio album since 2018’s chart-topping MANIA.
Of Stardust’s first-week units, album sales comprise 49,000, SEA units comprise 14,500 (equaling 18.65 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs) and TEA units comprise 500. Stardust was supported by a hefty number of physical formats — one standard CD, two cassettes, nine stand-alone vinyl LPs in assorted colors, eight deluxe vinyl boxed sets (each containing a different color vinyl LP and branded merchandise) and 11 deluxe CD boxed sets (seven containing a CD edition of the album and branded merch — and four consisting of an autographed CD along with merch).
In February, Stardust’s lead single “Love From the Other Side” became Fall Out Boy’s first-ever No. 1 on the Alternative Airplay chart — nearly 18 years after the band’s debut on the tally in 2005. The band had previously gone as high as No. 2 with “Dance, Dance” in 2006.
Rounding out the top 10 of the new Billboard 200 are four former No. 1s: Midnights falls 3-7 (59,000 equivalent album units; down 4%), Metro Boomin’s Heroes & Villains is a non-mover at No. 8 (45,000; up 14%), Wallen’s Dangerous dips 7-9 (43,000; up 3%) and Karol G’s Mañana Será Bonito descends 6-10 (40,000; down 12%).
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.