aespa Achieves Second No. 1 on Album Sales Chart With ‘MY WORLD’
Written by djfrosty on July 13, 2023
aespa achieves its second No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated July 15) as the Korean group’s latest release MY WORLD: The 3rd Mini Album debuts atop the list with 39,000 copies sold in the U.S. in the week ending July 6, according to Luminate.
Also in the top 10 of the new Top Album Sales chart, Lil Uzi Vert’s Pink Tape bows at No. 4, Phish nets its highest-charting album ever as its 2000 studio album Farmhouse re-enters at No. 5 after a vinyl reissue, and Lucinda Williams earns her best sales week in over seven years as Stories From a Rock N Roll Heart debuts at No. 9.
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.
Of MY WORLD’s 39,000 copies sold in its first week, physical sales comprise effectively all of that sum – and all on the CD format. Like many K-pop releases, the CD edition of MY WORLD was issued in collectible CD packages (more than 16, including exclusive editions for Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target, Walmart and the act’s webstore), each containing a standard set of branded merchandise items and randomized branded elements (such as photo cards, posters and stickers).
Stray Kids’ chart-topping 5-STAR rises 3-2 on Top Album Sales with 16,000 sold (down 17%) while Taylor Swift’s former No. 1 Midnights climbs 5-3 with 12,000 (up 9%). Lil Uzi Vert’s latest studio set Pink Tape arrives at No. 4 with a little over 11,000 sold, marking their third top 10-charting effort.
Phish’s studio album Farmhouse, released in 2000, returns to Top Album Sales at a new peak, as the set re-enters at No. 5 with a little over 11,000 sold (up 26,731%) – basically on in vinyl LP sales – after a new vinyl reissue. The set was reissued on 180-gram colored (blue and nebulous green) double-vinyl on June 30. Farmhouse also debuts at No. 1 on the Vinyl Albums chart (a little over 11,000 copies sold) – marking the band’s third leader on the list and its best sales week on vinyl ever.
Farmhouse originally debuted and peaked at No. 12 on the Top Album Sales chart in 2000. With its re-entry at No. 5, it marks Phish’s eighth top 10 on the tally.
ATEEZ’s former leader The World EP.2: Outlaw falls 2-6 on Top Album Sales with 11,000 sold (down 65%), ENHYPEN’s Dark Blood dips 4-7 with 9,000 (down 19%) and Swift’s chart-topping Folklore is pushed down 7-8 with nearly 9,000 (despite an 11% gain).
Lucinda Williams’ Stories From a Rock N Roll Heart bows at No. 9 on Top Album Sales with the singer’s best sales week in over seven years – 8,500. She last sold more in a week when The Ghosts of Highway 20 launched at No. 16 on the Feb. 27, 2016-dated chart with 16,000 sold. Stories is Williams’ third top 10 on Top Album Sales.
Rounding out the top 10 on the new Top Album Sales chart is Swift’s former No. 1 Lover, which falls 8-10 with nearly 8,000 (though up 10%).
In the week ending July 6, there were 1.746 million albums sold in the U.S. (up 2.2% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 1.420 million (up 4.2%) and digital albums comprised 327,000 (down 5.5%).
There were 652,000 CD albums sold in the week ending July 6 (up 5.2 % week-over-week) and 756,000 vinyl albums sold (up 2.9%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 18.189 million (up 4% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 24.362 million (up 21.2%).
Overall year-to-date album sales total 52.387 million (up 7.7% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 42.827 million (up 13.2%) and digital album sales total 9.560 million (down 11.3%).