Update: As with Hits Daily Double, Billboard confirms that Olivia Rodrigo’s “SOUR” was this past week’s #1 album for US sales and consumption.
The Billboard figures, however, came in a bit higher — and earn “SOUR” some additional distinctions.
Credited with 295K total first week units (across album sales, equivalent track sales units, and equivalent track streaming units), “SOUR” registers the biggest-single week US total of 2021. Taylor Swift’s “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” previously held that honor with 291K.
The figure, moreover, ranks as the greatest opening week unit sum for a debut album switched the Billboard 200 became a total consumption chart in 2014.
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Olivia Rodrigo’s “SOUR” unsurprisingly won this week’s US album sales and consumption races.
According to Hits Daily Double, the album sold 68.3K US copies during the May 21-27 tracking period. With units from track sales and streams included, “SOUR” debuted with 286.6K total first-week units.
The sales figure gives “SOUR” an advantage of more than 20K over the week’s second-best-seller (twenty one pilots’ “Scaled and Icy” with 47.8K). The unit figure more than triples of that of the week’s #2 performer for overall activity (J. Cole’s “The Off-Season” with 92.7K).
Thanks to the album’s stronger-than-expected streaming hold throughout the week, the unit figure markedly tops projections. The initial forecast called for 195-220K in units. That was raised to 230-255K on Monday and then to 265K on Tuesday, but even those upgraded projections understated the album’s impressive final performance.
The single-week streaming performance, moreover, ranks as the best-ever for a debut album by a female artist.
Billboard’s data may differ slightly from that reported by Hits, but the outcome will be the same: a #1 bow for both sales and total units.
What will be interesting to watch, however, is whether the Billboard number comes in higher than the 287K reported by Hits. Even a modest upward discrepancy could be enough to give “SOUR” the biggest opening of 2021 so far; Taylor Swift currently holds that distinction with “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” (291K).
