Making good on mid-week projections, Ariana Grande’s “Sweetener” dominated this week’s US album sales and consumption races.
According to Hits Daily Double, “Sweetener” sold approximately 127K pure US copies during the August 17-23 tracking period. The inclusion of TEA (track sales/10) and SEA (track streams/1250 for paid services + track streams/3750 for free services) yields a consumption tally of about 232K.
Slightly above industry projections, the figures position “Sweetener” as a dominant #1 in both columns. The Grande album sold more than three times as many pure copies and more than twice as many overall units as the week’s next-best performers.
Cole Swindell’s “All Of It,” the #2 pure sales performer, sold about 39K first-week copies in the US.
Travi$ Scott’s “ASTROWORLD,” the #2 album in total consumption, moved about 111K units.
Due Sunday, Billboard’s more authoritative data may differ slightly from that reported by Hits. The discrepancies will not, however, change the overall outcome. “Sweetener” will be a clear #1 on the Billboard Top Album Sales (pure sales) and Billboard 200 (total consumption) charts.
It will follow “Yours Truly” and “My Everything” in becoming the artist’s third career chart-topper.
