Update: It’s official: Blink-182’s “California” is #1 on the Top Album Sales and Billboard 200 charts.
It tops the former with what Billboard reports as 172,000 in pure opening week US sales. It tops the latter with 186,000 in total consumption units — the sum of the 172,000 pure sales, plus TEA (track sales/10) and SEA (track streams/1500) units.
Both figures obliterate early forecasts, which called for 120-125,000 in pure sales and 125-130,000 in total units.
In claiming #1 on the Billboard 200, “California” — at least temporarily — brings an end to the reign of Drake’s “Views.” The album, which slips to #2 on the strength of 117,000 weekly units, had spent the past nine weeks at #1.
Maxwell’s new “BlackSUMMERS’night” debuts at #2 on Top Album Sales (57,000) and #3 on the Billboard 200 (59,000 units). Beyonce’s “Lemonade” slips to #4 on the Billboard 200 with 39,000 units, while twenty one pilots’ “Blurryface” falls to #5 with 38,000.
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While even the earliest weekly projections gave Blink-182’s “California” the edge in this week’s US album sales and consumption races, not even the last projections sufficiently captured how well it would do.
Blink’s new studio album — and first with Matt Skiba — sold what Hits Daily Double reports as approximately 170,835 pure US copies during its first week of release. The inclusion of TEA (track sales/10) and SEA (track streams/1500) results in a weekly consumption total of about 184,943.
Projections delivered last Saturday said “California” was on track for 120-125,000 in weekly sales and 125-130,000 in total consumption. By Thursday, the last day of the tracking week, the projected tallies were 160,000 and 175,000, respectively.
Due Sunday, Billboard’s more authoritative data will differ slightly from that reported by Hits. The discrepancy will not, however, affect the overall conclusion. “California” will be #1 on the Top Album Sales and Billboard 200 charts.
The closest competition from a pure sales standpoint will be Maxwell’s new “BlackSUMMERS’night.” Hits says the album sold about 58,442 copies this week. Other notable pure sales performers include Drake’s “Views” (~39,950 sales), Beyonce’s “Lemonade” (~26,330) and Blake Shelton’s “If I’m Honest” (~20,780).
On the consumption front, other notable performers include “Views” (~117,009 units), “BlackSUMMERS’night” (~61,129), “Lemonade” (~39,456) and Twenty One Pilots’ “Blurryface” (~36,428).
Aided by solid album and track sales and enormous streaming numbers, “Views” spent the past nine weeks as the leader in overall album consumption.
