This week’s US album race ends in a split-chart scenario.
Lionel Richie’s “Hello From Las Vegas” dominates the pure US sales race, but Young Thug’s “So Much Fun” rules for overall consumption.
According to Hits Daily Double, the Richie album sold 67K pure US copies. As no other album even moved 25K copies this week, “Hello From Las Vegas” convincingly earns #1 on the pure sales chart.
The Young Thug album only generated about 5K in pure sales. The difference, however, is the lift it received from track sales and streams. With pure album sales, track sales and track streams combined, “So Much Fun” generated a whopping 128K in total US units. As track sales and streams were non-factors for the Richie album, its consumption total essentially mirrors its sales total at 67K.
“So Much Fun” thus takes #1 on the Hits Top 50 consumption chart.
Due Sunday, Billboard’s data may differ slightly from that reported by Hits. The main outcomes should not, however, change. Billboard should report “Hello From Las Vegas” as the #1 album on its Top Album Sales chart and “So Much Fun” as the leader on the Billboard 200.
