Billboard

J-Hope notches his second top 10-charting effort on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated April 13), as Hope On the Street, Vol. 1 bows at No. 2. He previously visited the region with Jack in the Box in 2023, which debuted and peaked at No. 2.

Hope On the Street, Vol. 1 is one of five debuting titles in the top 10 on the latest chart, as it’s joined by Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter (No. 1), Sum 41’s Heaven :X: Hell (No. 5), Aaron Lewis’ The Hill (No. 5) and mgk and Trippie Redd’s collaborative set Genre: Sadboy (No. 7).

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.

Cowboy Carter gallops onto the chart with 168,000 copies sold in the U.S. in the week ending April 4, according to Luminate. Of that sum, physical sales comprise 125,500 (63,500 on CD and 62,000 on vinyl) and digital download sales comprise 42,500.

Cowboy Carter’s sales were supported by the album’s availability across a number of configurations, released on March 29. It was issued as standard 19-track edition on vinyl (across four variants, each pressed on different color vinyl [black, red, white and blue] with alternate back cover artwork), a CD with an additional song (“Flamenco”) and a digital download and streaming edition (both in clean and explicit versions, with three bonus songs “Flamenco,” “Spaghetti” and “Ya Ya,” plus two interludes). The CD edition was issued in four variants (each with different back cover art). Two of the variants were sold as stand-alone items, while two of the CDs were only available inside two deluxe boxed sets (each with a different branded T-shirt contained inside a branded box). All physical configurations of the album were sold exclusively through Beyoncé’s official webstore, while the digital download and streaming editions were widely available.

The vinyl edition of Cowboy Carter sold 62,000 copies (across its four variants combined), marking Beyoncé’s biggest week on vinyl and the largest week for any vinyl album in 2024.

J-Hope’s Hope On the Street, Vol. 1 debuts at No. 2 on Top Album Sales, scoring the second top 10-charting effort for the singer. The set bows with a little over 44,000 copies sold in the tracking week. Of that sum, a little more than 38,000 were driven by CD sales. The album’s sales were supported by eight collectible CD editions (including exclusive variants for Target, Walmart and the Weverse store), all containing branded paper merchandise.

A pair of former No. 1s from Taylor Swift follow J-Hope, as Lover rises 7-3 (10,000; up 8%) and 1989 (Taylor’s Version) bumps 5-4 (9,000; down 6%).

Sum 41’s Heaven :X: Hell starts at No. 5 with a little over 7,000 sold, marking the fifth top 10-charting set and highest-charting effort ever for the act. The set’s sales were bolstered by its availability across eight vinyl variants, which combined to sell nearly 4,000 copies – the act’s best sales week on vinyl.

Aaron Lewis’ The Hill debuts at No. 6 with just under 7,000 sold – mostly from sales of its digital download album (about 4,000). It was also available as a standard CD and in two vinyl variants. The Hill is the fifth top 10-charting set for Lewis.

The first collaborative album from mgk and Trippie Redd, Genre: Sadboy, starts at No. 7 with nearly 7,000 sold (largely from its digital download). It’s the seventh top 10 for mgk and sixth for Trippie Redd.

Closing out the top 10 on Top Album Sales are three former chart-toppers: Swift’s Folklore (13-8 with nearly 6,500; down less than 1%), Ariana Grande’s Eternal Sunshine (10-9 with just over 6,000; down 19%) and TWICE’s With YOU-th (12-10 with 6,000; down 15%).

In the week ending April 4, there were 1.343 million albums sold in the U.S. (up 11.9% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 997,000 (up 11.8%) and digital albums comprised 346,000 (up 12.1%).

There were 518,000 CD albums sold in the week ending April 4 (up 21.4% week-over-week) and 475,000 vinyl albums sold (up 2.9%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 6.173 million (down 32% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 6.425 million (down 48.9%).

Overall year-to-date album sales total 16.883 million (down 36.9% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 12.661 million (down 41.9%) and digital album sales total 4.221 million (down 15.1%).