SEVENTEEN Scores Fifth Straight No. 1 on Top Album Sales Chart
Written by djfrosty on May 11, 2023
SEVENTEEN keeps up its perfect track record on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated May 13) as the act’s SEVENTEEN 10th Mini Album: FML debuts atop the list – the 13-member Korean pop ensemble’s fifth consecutive No. 1, of five total entries. All have also bowed at No. 1. The title sold 132,000 copies in the United States in the week ending May 4, according to Luminate – the fourth-largest sales week for an album in 2023 and SEVENTEEN’s best sales week yet.
Like many K-pop releases, the CD edition of FML was issued in collectible CD packages (14 total, including exclusives for Barnes & Noble, Target and the Weverse webstore), each containing a standard set of items and randomized elements (postcards, mini posters, bookmarks and stickers).
FML was also available as a standard digital download album, as well as via 17 digital download variants that were sold exclusively through the act’s official webstore, each with alternate cover art. Four of them have two bonus tracks – one instrumental track and a voice memo from certain group members – that are different on each album. The remaining 13 alternate digital albums all have the album’s standard tracklist, just with a different cover (one for each of the group members). Of FML’s first-week album sales, 98% were CDs, while the remaining 2% were digital album downloads. The set was not available in any other retail format (such as vinyl or cassette).
Also in the top 10 of the new Top Album Sales chart, The National, Grateful Dead and ILLENIUM arrive with their latest releases.
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.
Agust D’s D-Day falls to No. 2 (25,000; down 79%) after debuting at No. 1 a week ago.
The National’s First Two Pages of Frankenstein starts at No. 3 with a little over 24,000 copies sold (with a little more than 15,000 of that sum powered by vinyl sales). It’s the fifth top 10-charting effort for the act.
Grateful Dead’s Dave’s Picks, Volume 46: Hollywood Palladium, Los Angeles, CA – 9/9/72 bows at No. 4 with 21,000 sold. It’s the latest in the group’s long-running archival concert series.
A trio of former No. 1s is next on Top Album Sales, as Metallica’s 72 Seasons falls 3-5 (13,000; down 49%), Taylor Swift’s Midnights dips 5-6 (11,000; down 30%) and Melanie Martinez’s Portals shifts 6-7 (just over 7,000; down 47%).
ILLENIUM’s self-titled album debuts at No. 8 with 7,000 sold, largely from vinyl sales (nearly 6,000). It’s the second top 10 for the dance/electronic act.
Rounding out the top 10 on the new Top Album Sales chart is TWICE’s former leader Ready to Be: 12th Mini Album (rising 22-9 with nearly 7,000; down 10%) and Swift’s Folklore (14-10 with 6,500; down 26%).
In the week ending May 4, there were 1.827 million albums sold in the U.S. (down 37.5% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 1.482 million (down 42.6%) and digital albums comprised 344,000 (down 1.6%).
There were 712,000 CD albums sold in the week ending May 4 (down 6.3% week-over-week) and 762,000 vinyl albums sold (down 57.9%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 11.936 million (up 5% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 17.058 million (up 27.3%).
Overall year-to-date album sales total 35.534 million (up 10.3% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 29.181 million (up 17%) and digital album sales total 6.353 million (down 12.7%).