Forget the fact that Luke Bryan solidified himself as the top-selling male act in country. With a monster performance for his new album “Crash My Party,” the country singer nearly outsold one of the biggest names in all of entertainment.
In officially confirming that his new album topped the Billboard 200, the music magazine revealed that Bryan’s LP sold nearly 528,000 copies. That “Crash My Party” sales total rivals that of Jay-Z’s “Magna Carta… Holy Grail,” which sold just over 528,000 copies in its debut this summer.
The only other album to debut with a better total was Justin Timberlake’s “The 20/20 Experience,” which moved 968,000 copies.
In scoring more than a half-million opening week sales, “Crash My Party” becomes the hottest-selling album from a male country act since Tim McGraw’s “Live Like You Were Dying” moved 766,000 in 2004.
Over the past few years, only three other albums have topped 500,000 weekly copies; all three–“Fearless,” “Speak Now” and “Red”–came from Taylor Swift.