Madonna [Grammys | CBS]
Madonna’s “Rebel Heart” narrowly outpaced the “Empire” soundtrack to win last week’s US album sales race.
There was nothing narrow about its worldwide victory.
Per an estimate tabulated by MediaTraffic, “Rebel Heart” moved approximately 315,000 worldwide copies during its first week of availability. It was by far the globe’s best weekly seller.
The “50 Shades of Grey” soundtrack, which registered as the week’s runner-up, moved a considerably fewer 126,000 worldwide copies.
Only enough for #2 on the weekly listing, the “50 Shades of Grey” total did nonetheless facilitate an impressive achievement. It brought the album’s cumulative worldwide sales total past the 1 million mark (MediaTraffic estimates to-date sales at 1.012 million).
116,000 of the ~315,000 “Rebel Heart” sales came from within the United States. That allowed the album to best the “Empire” soundtrack (110,000 US sales) on the Billboard Top Album Sales chart.