“I Know What You Did Last Summer” officially arrived just prior to midnight on Wednesday, November 18.
By Wednesday, November 18, it was up to #3 on the US iTunes single sales chart.
The Shawn Mendes-Camila Cabello collaboration presently trails only Adele’s “Hello” and Jordan Smith’s “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” (The Voice) on the iTunes listing.
Valuable in that it kept “I Know What You Did” away from the plethora of new music that arrives each Friday and gives the song a greater opportunity to gain recognition ahead of the 11/24 radio impact, the late Tuesday/early Wednesday release is not optimal from a Billboard chart standpoint. The key music publication relies on data from Nielsen, which adheres to a Friday-Thursday tracking week.
As a result, the single will not have enough time to make a massive splash on the Billboard charts associated with the current November 13-19 tracking week. Since it will likely begin fading as the November 20-26 tracking week commences, it will also claim a suboptimal position on that week’s associated charts.
Still, the strong real-time iTunes performance confirms an immediate impact. Both artists have passionate fanbases, and that passion is resulting in opening day sales activity.