album sales
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Adam Lambert lands his fifth top 10-charting effort on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated March 11) as his new covers project, High Drama, debuts at No. 7. The set marks his highest-charting effort on Top Album Sales since 2015, when the studio set The Original High debuted and peaked at No. 2 (July 4, 2015-dated chart).
High Drama boasts renditions of such top 40-charting Billboard Hot 100 hits as Bonnie Tyler’s “Holding Out for a Hero,” Duran Duran’s “Ordinary World,” Sia’s chart-topping “Chandelier” and Culture Club’s “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me.”
Also in the top 10 of the new Top Album Sales chart, Gorillaz land their second No. 1 with the arrival of Cracker Island, Godsmack notches its eighth top 10 (and highest charting set since 2010) with the No. 2 bow of Lighting Up the Sky, Karol G clocks her first top 10 with Mañana Será Bonito and Dierks Bentley achieves his 10th top 10 with the No. 9 bow of Gravel & Gold.
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.
High Drama sold 8,500 copies in the U.S. in the week ending March 2, according to Luminate. Physical sales comprise 4,500 (effectively all from CD sales) and digital album sales comprise 4,000.
At No. 1, Gorillaz’s Cracker Island breezes in with 48,500 copies sold in its first week, the fourth-largest sales week of 2023 and the biggest for a rock album. Of its starting sum, 32,000 were vinyl sales – the largest sales week for a vinyl album in 2023 and the biggest debut week for a rock album on vinyl in nearly a year, since Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Unlimited Love sold 38,500 in its first week (chart dated April 16, 2022).
Godsmack’s Lighting Up the Sky enters Top Album Sales at No. 2 with 18,000 sold. P!nk’s Trustfall slips to No. 3 with 17,000 sold (down 71%) after its debut at No. 1 a week ago. TOMORROW X TOGETHER’s chart-topping The Name Chapter: Temptation falls 2-4 with 14,000 (down 37%) and Taylor Swift’s former leader Midnights dips 4-5 with 11,000 (down 23%).
Karol G nabs her first top 10-charting set on Top Album Sales as Mañana Será Bonito debuts at No. 6 with 10,000 sold (her best sales week ever). The set also enters atop the Billboard 200 – the first all-Spanish-language No. 1 by a female artist – largely powered by streaming activity.
Paramore’s chart-topping This Is Why falls 6-8 with 7,000 sold (down 43%).
Dierks Bentley collects his 10th top 10-charting set on Top Album Sales as Gravel & Gold – his first studio album in nearly five years –enters at No. 9 with 6,000 sold. All but two of Bentley’s charting efforts on Top Album Sales have reached the top 10 – he’s only missed the region with his self-titled debut (peaking at No. 26 in 2003) and a four-song EP titled Country & Cold Cans (No. 54 in 2012).
Closing out the top 10 of the new Top Album Sales chart is Stray Kids’ former No. 1 MAXIDENT, rising 11-10 with nearly 6,000 sold (down 6%).
In the week ending March 2, there were 1.852 million albums sold in the U.S. (down 2.4% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 1.474 million (down 4.4%) and digital albums comprised 378,000 (up 6.5%).
There were 606,000 CD albums sold in the week ending March 2 (down 5% week-over-week) and 856,000 vinyl albums sold (down 4.2%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 5.525 million (up 0.8% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 7.968 million (up 26%).
Overall year-to-date album sales total 16.67 million (up 7.3% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 13.576 million (up 14.3%) and digital album sales total 3.094 million (down 15.3%).
Beyoncé’s Renaissance returns to the top 10 of Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated Feb. 18) for the first time in three months, rising 56-10, following the diva’s multiple wins at the Grammy Awards (Feb. 5). The set sold 5,500 copies in the U.S. in the week ending Feb. 9 (up 138%), according to Luminate.
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The album was last in the top 10 on the Oct. 29, 2022-dated list, when it ranked at No. 7.
Renaissance won the Grammy Award for best dance/electronic album (an award presented on-air during the CBS-TV broadcast of the main ceremony) while three of its songs won individual awards. “Break My Soul” won best dance/electronic recording, “Plastic Off the Sofa” took home best traditional R&B performance and “Cuff It” won best R&B song.
Beyoncé won four Grammys on Feb. 5, bringing her total of awards to 32 – breaking the record for the most wins in the Awards’ history (a feat that was promoted extensively during the CBS show).
In total, Beyoncé was nominated for nine Grammys at the ceremony, winning four. She was also up for album of the year (Renaissance), record of the year, song of the year (both for “Break My Soul”), best R&B performance (“Virgo’s Groove”) and best song written for visual media (“Be Alive”).
Elsewhere on Billboard’s album charts, Renaissance runs 30-8 on Top Current Album Sales, 24-11 on the Billboard 200 (its highest rank since the Nov. 12 chart, when it placed at No. 10), 10-5 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, 4-3 on Top R&B Albums and holds at No. 1 for an 11th week on Top Dance/Electronic Albums.
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.
Top Current Album Sales lists the week’s best-selling current (not catalog, or older albums) albums by traditional album sales. Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, Top R&B Albums and Top Dance/Electronic Albums rank the week’s most popular R&B/hip-hop, R&B and dance/electronic albums, respectively, by units.
Back on Top Album Sales, TOMORROW X TOGETHER’s The Name Chapter: TEMPTATION, which debuted atop the list a week ago, spends a second week at No. 1, with 43,000 copies sold (down 72%). The set has shifted 195,000 copies in its first two weeks of release – with 98% of that sum from CD sales.
Shania Twain’s new studio album Queen of Me debuts at No. 2 on Top Album Sales with 34,000 sold. It’s the country/pop superstar’s sixth top 10-charting effort on the list.
Taylor Swift’s former leader Midnights is a non-mover at No. 3 on Top Album Sales with 15,500 sold (down 12%).
Harry Styles’ Harry’s House zooms 21-4 with 10,000 sold (up 119%), following its two wins at the Grammy Awards (best pop vocal album and album of the year). Styles also performed the album’s hit single “As It Was” on the CBS broadcast. Meanwhile, best new artist winner Samara Joy reaches the top 10 for the first time as her album Linger Awhile vaults 87-5 with 6,500 sold (up 317%). The set also won the Grammy best jazz vocal album.
The charity compilation A Philly Special Christmas rises 7-6 on Top Album Sales despite a decline in sales (down 31% to 6,000 for the week). It’s the highest charting non-soundtrack compilation since 2020, when the all-star Now 74 set also hit No. 6 (May 16, 2020 chart). (Speaking of the Now That’s What I Call Music! franchise, the new Now 85 compilation debuts on the new chart at No. 13.)
The Philly album continues to perform well thanks to vinyl sales. 65% of its cumulative sales (20,500 of 31,500) are vinyl, with the remainder digital album purchases.
Michael Jackson’s Thriller rises 10-7 on Top Album Sales with nearly 6,000 sold (down less than 1%), Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours rebounds 13-8 with 5,500 (up 4%) and Stray Kids’ former No. 1 MAXIDENT climbs 22-9 with nearly 5,500 (up 21%).
In the week ending Feb. 9, there were 1.778 million albums sold in the U.S. (down 5.6% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 1.414 million (down 8.9%) and digital albums comprised 364,000 (up 9.9%).
There were 606,000 CD albums sold in the week ending Feb. 9 (down 16.2% week-over-week) and 801,000 vinyl albums sold (down 2.4%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 3.659 million (up 0.2% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 5.299 million (up 25.6%).
Overall year-to-date album sales total 11.037 million (up 6.4% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 9.009 million (up 13.8%) and digital album sales total 2.029 million (down 17.4%).
U.S. vinyl album sales hit a modern-era high in the week ending Dec. 22, as 2.232 million copies were sold, according to Luminate. That marks the single-largest sales week for vinyl albums since Luminate began electronically tracking music sales in 1991. It’s also only the second time in the modern era (1991-onward) that weekly vinyl album sales have exceeded 2 million. It last happened a year ago, when vinyl had its previous modern-era-high by selling 2.115 million in the week ending Dec. 23, 2021.
Vinyl album sales grew by 46.7% in the week ending Dec. 22 (compared with the previous week), powered by holiday gift shopping. The top-selling vinyl album of the week was Taylor Swift’s Midnights, which sold 68,000 copies – the third-largest sales week of the year for an album on vinyl. (Midnights’ vinyl sales profit from its availability across five vinyl variants – all colored vinyl editions, including one exclusive to Target.)
Vinyl album sales made up 57% of overall album sales in the United States in the week ending Dec. 22 (2.232 million of 3.897 million) and 63% of all physical album sales (2.232 million of 3.526 million). (Overall album sales combine both physical and digital download album purchases. Physical album sales include vinyl albums, CDs and cassettes.)
Year-to-date vinyl album sales stand at 41.891 million – up 3.6% compared with the same point in 2021.