Calling it a battle of the pop divas made for compelling copy, but when it comes to opening week sales performance, there really was no competition.
Katy Perry’s “Roar” dominated Lady Gaga’s “Applause” this week.
According to Billboard, Perry’s single–which still reigns atop the iTunes single sales chart–is pacing for a debut week sales total in the 525,000-550,000 range. In addition to giving Perry the victory over Gaga (and all other singles this week), it would also represent Perry’s all-time best weekly sales mark.
Perry’s previous best sales figure came the week after Christmas in 2010, when “Firework” moved 509,000 copies.
Lady Gaga’s “Applause,” meanwhile, is pacing for just 200-225,000 downloads this week. Decidedly less hot than Perry’s single from the get-go, “Applause” also cooled far faster. As of press time, “Applause” had fallen to number seven on the iTunes chart, and it appears on track to soon slip below songs like “Radioactive” and “Royals.”
“Roar” and “Applause” serve as the lead singles for upcoming fall releases “Prism” and “ARTPOP,” respectively. Their performance hierarchy represents a role reversal from the previous Perry and Gaga lead single releases.
In 2011, Lady Gaga launched the title track of “Born This Way” to an impressive 448,000 opening-week sales (in just three days of availability). Perry’s 2010 album “Teenage Dream” launched with “California Gurls” and its 294,000 debut-week downloads.
Calculation for the sales data, which will be officially reported Wednesday, runs through the end of Sunday, August 18.
