Taylor Swift’s ‘Midnights’ Spends Second Week at No. 1 on Billboard 200
Written by djfrosty on November 7, 2022
Taylor Swift’s Midnights easily tops the Billboard 200 chart (dated Nov. 12) for a second week, following its blockbuster debut at No. 1 a week earlier. The set earned 342,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Nov. 3 (down 78%). A week ago, the album barged in at No. 1 with 1.578 million units, the largest weekly total since Adele’s 25 debuted with 3.482 million units (Dec. 12, 2015 chart).
Midnights has the largest second-week total for any album since Adele’s 25 tallied 1.162 million units in is second frame (Dec. 19, 2015, chart). Plus, Midnights’ second-week sum is the third-largest overall week of the year for any album. In 2022, the three largest weeks are Midnights’ debut (1.578 million), the debut of Harry Styles’ Harry’s House (521,000) and Midnights’ second week (342,000). One more note about the size of Midnights’ second-week – it’s so big, it’s larger than the total units earned by the Nos. 2-7 albums on the latest chart combined. A week ago, Midnights’ first week was larger than the Nos. 2-88 albums’ totals combined.
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 Nov. 12, 2022-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Nov. 8. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
Of Midnights‘ 342,000 equivalent album units earned, SEA units comprise 224,000 (down 46%, equaling 294 million on-demand official streams of the set’s tracks), album sales comprise 114,000 (down 90%) and TEA units comprise 4,000 (down 79%).
Lil Baby’s former No. 1 It’s Only Me is a non-mover at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 (81,000 equivalent album units; down 26%), while Bad Bunny’s chart-topping Un Verano Sin Ti is stationary at No. 3 (62,000; down 7%).
The Beatles’ former No. 1 Billboard 200 album Revolver re-enters the chart at No. 4 following its deluxe special edition reissue on Oct. 28. The set earned 54,000 equivalent album units in the week ending Nov. 3 (up 1,963%). Of that sum, album sales comprise 46,000 (up 6,346%), SEA units comprise 7,000 (up 280%; equaling 8.78 million on-demand streams of the set’s tracks) and TEA units comprise 1,000 (up 1,237%).
Revolver was first released in 1966 and spent six weeks atop the chart (Sept. 10 – Oct. 15, 1966-dated charts). For its special edition, the album was reintroduced in a variety of expanded formats and editions, including many with previously unreleased tracks. All versions of the album, old and new, are combined for tracking and charting purposes.
The rerelease of Revolver is part of the ongoing series of expanded reissues of select studio albums by The Beatles. It follows reissues of Let It Be in 2021 (first released in 1970), Abbey Road in 2019 (first released in 1969), The Beatles in 2018 (often referred to as the White Album, first released in 1968) and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in 2017 (first released in 1967). All five albums originally hit No. 1 shortly after their release, and returned to the top 10 after their expanded reissues.
Morgan Wallen’s chart-topping Dangerous: The Double Album falls 4-5 on the Billboard 200 with 41,000 equivalent album units earned (down 6%), and The Weeknd’s The Highlights dips 5-6 with nearly 41,000 (up 3%).
Baby Keem’s The Melodic Blue returns to the top 10 after more than a year, vaulting 105-7, following the set’s expanded reissue and debut on vinyl (both on Oct. 28). Ten additional tracks were added to the album (bringing its total to 26 tracks), while the set’s original standard tracklist of 16 tracks bowed on vinyl LP.
The Melodic Blue earned 37,000 equivalent album units in the week ending Nov. 3 (up 267%). Of that sum, SEA units comprise 26,000 (equaling 35.76 million on-demand official streams of the set’s collected tracks), album sales comprise 11,000 (essentially all in vinyl sales) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum.
The Melodic Blue previously spent one week in the top 10, when it debuted and peaked at No. 5 on the Sept. 25, 2021-dated chart.
Kodak Black collects his fifth top 10-charting effort on the Billboard 200 as Kutthroat Bill: Vol. 1 debuts at No. 8 with 37,000 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum, SEA units comprise 34,000 (equaling 45.67 million on-demand official streams of the set’s tracks), album sales comprise 2,500 and TEA units comprise a negligible sum.
Rounding out the top 10 on the new Billboard 200 are two former No. 1s: Harry Styles’ Harry’s House, falling 8-9 with 31,000 equivalent album units (down 3%), and Beyoncé’s Renaissance, steady at No. 10 with 26,000 (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.