Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Rumours: Live’ Debuts in Top 10 on Album Sales Chart
Written by djfrosty on September 21, 2023
Fleetwood Mac’s from-the-vaults release Rumours: Live debuts at No. 4 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated Sept. 23). It’s the highest debut on the list for the band in more than 20 years, since the act’s last full-length studio album, Say You Will, opened at No. 2 in May 2003.
Comprised almost entirely of previously unreleased recordings, Rumours: Live captures the band’s Aug. 29, 1977, concert at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif., during the act’s Rumours Tour. The trek was in support of its then-most-recent studio release Rumours, which had bowed earlier in 1977. That album would spend 31 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart – still the most weeks at No. 1 for an album by a group. The set launched four top 10-charting hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including the group’s lone chart-topper, “Dreams.”
Also in the top 10 of the new Top Album Sales chart, new releases from Olivia Rodrigo, V, Tyler Childers and BOYNEXTDOOR all arrive, while Lauren Daigle’s self-titled album re-enters the chart straight into the top 10 after a deluxe reissue.
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.
Rumours: Live sold a little over 10,000 copies in the U.S. in the week ending Sept. 14, according to Luminate. Among the songs featured on the album are such Hot 100 hits as “Dreams,” “Oh Well,” “Landslide,” “Over My Head,” “Rhiannon,” “You Make Loving Fun” and “Go Your Own Way.” Rumours: Live was available to purchase as a digital download album or in three physical iterations (a 180-gram double vinyl set, a crystal-clear colored double vinyl set sold via Walmart, and a two-CD package). Vinyl accounted for 44.5% of the album’s first-week sales.
At No. 1 on Top Album Sales, Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts debuts with 150,000 copies sold. Of that sum, physical sales comprise 138,000 (94,000 on vinyl, 43,000 on CD and 1,000 on cassette) and digital download sales comprise 12,000. Guts’ vinyl sales mark the seventh-largest week for a vinyl album since Luminate began electronically tracking sales in 1991.
Guts’ first-week sales were bolstered by its availability across 13 different vinyl variants. Among the variants: a signed edition and exclusive color vinyl and picture-disc editions sold through Amazon, independent record stores, Spotify, Target, Urban Outfitters, Walmart and Rodrigo’s webstore. Guts’ sales also got a boost from four CD editions (including a signed version), a cassette tape and four deluxe boxed sets sold through Rodrigo’s webstore (each containing a CD or vinyl LP along with branded merchandise).
BTS’ V sees his debut solo studio effort Layover enter at No. 2 on Top Album Sales with 88,000 copies sold. Of its first-week sales, physical sales comprise 79,000 (all on CD) and digital download sales comprise a little over 9,000. Layover’s debut was enhanced by its availability in collectible CD offerings – 13 in total.
The set was released in three standard iterations (dubbed Layover 1, Layover 2 and Layover 3, each containing branded paper goods and merchandise specific to the iteration like photobooks, lyric books, posters, postcards and photocards, as well as randomized stickers). Each iteration was also available in variants sold exclusively through Barnes & Noble, Walmart and the Weverse store (a total of nine; and each retailer had its own exclusive photocard enclosed in the three variants). Lastly, Target carried its own exclusive version of the album (with a Target-exclusive photocard), where one of the three iterations of the album (Layover 1, 2 or 3) were sold to the customer (with online buyers randomly shipped one of the three iterations).
Tyler Childers’ Rustin’ in the Rain bows at No. 3 on Top Album Sales with 25,000 copies sold. Of that sum, physical sales comprise 17,500 (with 15,000 on vinyl and 2,500 on CD) and digital album sales comprise 7,500. The album was sold in four different vinyl variants, as well as three deluxe boxed sets exclusive to his webstore (each containing a vinyl LP and branded merch).
Taylor Swift’s chart-topping Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) is a non-mover at No. 5 on Top Album Sales with a little over 9,000 sold (down 3%), NewJeans’ former leader 2nd EP ‘Get Up’ falls 4-8 with nearly 9,000 (down 19%), Rodrigo’s former No. 1 Sour shoots 50-7 with a little over 8,000 (up 288%), and Swift’s former No. 1 Midnights dips 7-8 with nearly 8,000 (up 1%).
Lauren Daigle’s self-titled album re-enters Top Album Sales at No. 9 (nearly 8,000 sold; up 1,255%), prompted by its deluxe reissue on Sept. 8 with additional tracks. The set initially debuted and peaked at No. 3 on the May 27-dated chart. The deluxe edition of the album was released in four vinyl variants (including exclusives for Barnes & Noble and the artist’s webstore), four CD variants (including a Target-exclusive cover variant, a zine/CD package, a signed CD and a lenticular cover version), and was available in two Fan Pack offerings (where a piece of branded merchandise was sold alongside a physical copy of the album).
Rounding out the top 10 of Top Album Sales is BOYNEXTDOOR’s debut album Why.., which starts at No. 10 with nearly 8,000 sold. The K-pop effort was available in eight collectible CD editions (including exclusive iterations sold through Barnes & Noble, Target and the Weverse store), each with a standard set of branded paper goods and merchandise items (photobooks, film photos, posters, stickers, and the like) and randomized items (including photocards and post cards).
The album was initially released to purchase as a digital download album on Sept. 4, followed by its CD release on Sept. 8. In the week ending Sept. 14, CD sales comprised 99.8% of the album’s sales, with digital downloads comprising the remaining 0.2%.
In the week ending Sept. 14, there were 1.766 million albums sold in the U.S. (up 8.3% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 1.437 million (up 11.6%) and digital albums comprised 328,000 (down 4.1%).
There were 649,000 CD albums sold in the week ending Sept. 14 (up 19.4% week-over-week) and 779,000 vinyl albums sold (up 6.1%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 24.475 million (up 1.5% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 32.66 million (up 20.1%).
Overall year-to-date album sales total 70.597 million (up 6.7% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 57.512 million (up 11.3%) and digital album sales total 13.085 million (down 9.9%).