Update: Thanks to first-week sales of 62,000, Fifth Harmony’s “Reflection” debuts at #3 on the Billboard Top Album Sales chart. As previously reported, the first week sales total represents the best for a US reality act’s debut album since Phillip Phillips’ “The World from the Side of the Moon” moved 169,000 in 2012.
With Track Equivalent Album (10 single sales = 1 album sale) and Streaming Equivalent Album (1500 single streams = 1 album sale) data included, “Reflection” claims a first-week consumption unit total of 80,000. That allows for a #5 debut on the revamped Billboard 200.
The top ten of this week’s Billboard 200 is as follows:
1) Taylor Swift – 1989 – 108,000 total consumption units
2) NOW 53 – 99,000 total consumption units (99,000 from pure sales – it was the week’s best-selling album)
3) Ed Sheeran – x – 97,000 units (53,000 from pure sales)
4) Sam Smith – In the Lonely Hour – to-be-announced unit total (57,000 from pure sales)
5) Fifth Harmony – Reflection – 80,000 units (62,000 from pure sales)
6) Meghan Trainor – Title – 59,000 units
7) Bob Dylan – Shadows in the Night – 50,000 units (50,000 from pure sales)
8) Nicki Minaj – The Pinkprint – 48,000 units
9) Maroon 5 – V – 47,000 units
10) Diana Krall – Wallflower – 44,000 units
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Fifth Harmony’s “Reflection” will not start at the top of the mountain, but it will claim a top five position on both the Billboard Top Album Sales Chart and the Billboard 200.
“Reflection” looks safe for a #3 bow on the former, which measures pure sales. Hits Daily Double’s final sales report, which should differ only slightly from the final Billboard breakdown, says the album moved approximately 62,253 copies in its first week.
Not since Phillip Phillips’ “The World from the Side of the Moon” moved 169,000 copies has a US reality show act’s debut album opened with more first week sales. Fifth Harmony appeared on season two of FOX’s “The X Factor.”
And as far as this week’s overall race goes, only “NOW 53” (~98,074) and Taylor Swift’s “1989” (~77,132) claimed greater pure sales totals.
The inclusion of Track Equivalent Album (10 track sales = 1 album sale) and Streaming Equivalent Album (1500 track streams = 1 album sale) brings the album’s total consumption unit count to ~80,253.
That should allow for a top five bow on the revamped Billboard 200. Taylor Swift’s “1989” (~107,722), “NOW 53” (~98,074), Sam Smith’s “In the Lonely Hour” (~84,154) and Ed Sheeran’s “x” (~83,742) appear to have claimed greater weekly totals.
