Update: Billboard released its official sales data Wednesday, and Garth Brooks indeed claims the top spot for his “Blame it All On My Roots.”
The set, which moved 146,000 copies in its second week (and first full week of sales), gives Brooks his ninth number one on the Billboard 200.
Despite enduring a 79% hit from last week’s debut total, One Direction’s “Midnight Memories” claims number two with 117,000 in sales. Kelly Clarkson’s “Wrapped in Red” earns third with 112,000.
Setting the expected career low marks for opening week sales and opening week rank, Britney Spears’ “Britney Jean” moved just 107,000 for a fourth place bow.
The Robertsons’ “Duck the Halls” claims fifth with 105,000, while Eminem’s “MMLP2” slips to sixth with a total of 84,000.
Breakthrough a capella act Pentatonix continues making waves; thanks to the success of “Little Drummer Boy,” its “PTXmas” release jumps to seventh with 60,000 in weekly sales. Michael Buble’s “Christmas” earns eighth with 57,000, Katy Perry’s “Prism” slips to ninth with 51,000 and Mary J. Blige’s “A Mary Christmas” completes the top ten with a tally just shy of 51,000.
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Last week’s album sales data is beginning to turn official, and it portrays Britney Spears’ “Britney Jean” no more favorably than the initial forecasts did.
According to Hits Daily Double, Spears’ “Britney Jean” indeed debuted with the lowest sales total of the superstar’s fifteen year career. It will also become only her second of eight studio releases to miss out on a number one debut.
The pbulication reports that “Britney Jean” moved a disappointing 108,461 copies in its first week.
While Billboard’s data will likely differ slightly, it will not change the conclusion that Spears’ album lost its battle against Garth Brooks’ holdover “Blame it All on My Roots.” According to Hits, the country veteran’s Wal-Mart exclusive moved roughly 141,566 copies in its second week of release.
Hits also lists One Direction’s “Midnight Memories,” The Robertsons’ “Duck the Halls” and Kelly Clarkson’s “Wrapped in Red” ahead of the Spears album, although insofar as the separation between those albums is less than two thousand, it is too early to predict where “Britney Jean” will land in the top five of the Billboard 200 chart.
With holdovers occupying the rest of the top ten, Jake Owen’s new “Days of Gold,” on the strength of 40,615 sales, was forced to settle for number thirteen on the Hits chart.
The soundtrack to NBC’s “The Sound of Music,” the next best newcomer, moved roughly 37,359 copies. Consistent with early forecasts, the total confirms that the larger than expected viewership did not translate into better than expected soundtrack sales.