Due to the “complete my album” effect, Billboard’s data reflects a deflated week four total for Justin Bieber’s “Sorry.”
Despite the week-to-week decline, the single still managed to move comfortably past the 600,000 US sales mark.
According to Nielsen Music, “Sorry” is credited with 82,023 US sales during the November 13-19 tracking week. Down 46% from the previous week’s total, it still brings the single’s cumulative mark to a healthy 641,072.
Why the sharp weekly decline? If one who previously bought the “Sorry” single used the “complete my album” feature to buy “Purpose” in conjunction with this week’s release, Nielsen and Billboard treated the gesture as tantamount to “returning” the original single purchase (and buying the album instead). The sale is deducted from the song’s total.
While the complete my album effect impacts the song’s cumulative sales total and position on the Digital Songs chart, it does not, however, affect the song’s Hot 100 position. When calculating the song’s position on the all-encompassing chart, Billboard will account only for the actual single sales generated during the November 13-19 tracking week.