Linkin Park [James Minchin | WBR Press]
Update: It’s official: Linkin Park’s “One More Light” debuts at #1 on the Billboard Top Album Sales and Billboard 200 charts.
It tops the former with what Billboard reports as 100K in pure US album sales.
The inclusion of TEA (track sales/10) and SEA (track streams/1500) yields a first-week consumption total of 111K US units. That is enough for #1 on the Billboard 200.
Kendrick Lamar’s “DAMN.” takes #2 on the Billboard 200 with 98K units, while a sum of 67K slots Harry Styles’ “Harry Styles” in third.
Drake’s “More Life” takes #4 with 57K units, and Chris Stapleton’s “From A Room, Volume 1” earns #5 on the strength of 50K.
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Linkin Park’s new “One More Light” predictably won the weekly US album sales race.
It may have also posted the week’s best overall consumption total, but that race is presently too close to call.
According to BuzzAngle and Hits Daily Double, “One More Light” sold approximately 91,005 pure US copies during the May 19-25 tracking week. The count easily ranks as the week’s best.
Chris Stapleton’s “From A Room, Volume 1” and Harry Styles’ “Harry Styles,” the next-best sellers, respectively sold ~41,726 and ~39,098 pure US copies this week.
Billboard’s more authoritative sales figures may differ slightly, but the discrepancy will not be enough to jeopardize the Linkin Park album’s chart position. It will definitely be #1 on Billboard Top Album Sales.
— The Billboard 200 consumption race (album sales + track sales/10 + track streams/1500) will meanwhile come down to “One More Light” and Kendrick Lamar’s “DAMN.”
The BuzzAngle/Hits data gives the edge to “One More Light,” which reportedly generated ~100,582 units this week. BuzzAngle reports a ~96,513 weekly consumption total for “DAMN.”
That gap of 4K units, however, is within the “margin of error” that sometimes exists between BuzzAngle and Billboard data.
The Billboard 200 race is thus too close to call; we will need to wait for Billboard’s official comment on Sunday or Monday.