Update 3: Billboard has revised its data to confirm that Nicki Minaj’s “The Pinkprint” moved 198,000 copies in its first week of release.
Update 2: Nicki Minaj’s “The Pinkprint” debuts at #3 on the sales chart with 194,000 inaugural week sales.
With Track Equivalent Album and Streaming Equivalent Album data included, the album’s total unit count rises to 244,000. That positions the album at #2 on the revamped Billboard 200 (behind Taylor Swift’s “1989”).
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Update: Hits Daily Double estimates that Track Equivalent Album (ten song sales = one album sale) and Streaming Equivalent Album (1500 song streams = one album sale) data will add 50,000 units to the sales total for Nicki Minaj’s “The Pinkprint.”
That will be enough to score “The Pinkprint” a #2 bow on the newly formatted Billboard 200.
Per Hits Daily Double’s sales report, which will differ slightly from Billboard’s more authoritative data, “The Pinkprint” bows with a first-week sales total of 201,000 (#3 behind Taylor Swift’s “1989” and Pentatonix’s “That’s Christmas to Me”) and a complete “sales plus streaming” unit count of 251,000 (#2 behind only the Swift album).
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While celebration of the specific figure is best halted until Billboard issues its authoritative sales report Wednesday morning, Nicki Minaj and her fans are probably safe to celebrate the notion that her new “The Pinkprint” topped industry sales forecasts.
Eyed for a bow in the 165-175,000 range by Hits Daily Double and a start in the 160,000 territory according to a late-week Billboard report, “The Pinkprint” possibly sold in the vicinity of 200,000 first-week copies.
According to Hits Daily Double’s sales report, which typically provides a very strong indication of what will appear in the Billboard/Soundscan data, “The Pinkprint” claims #3 on the weekly sales chart on the strength of 201,000 sales. Only Taylor Swift’s “1989” (~331,000) and Pentatonix’s “That’s Christmas to Me” (~203,000) rank higher on the Hits chart.
Insofar as Hits’ report has been more flattering to recent, high-profile releases than Billboard’s, Minaj fans should brace for the possibility that “The Pinkprint” did not cross the 200,000 mark in its first week.
They should, not, however, worry that “The Pinkprint” debuted below three on the weekly album sales chart or that it fell short of industry projections.
