When the June 11-17 tracking period began, Polo G’s “Hall Of Fame” looked set to convincingly debut as America’s #1 album for overall activity.
Revised mid-week projections, however, pointed to a much closer race. The initial 165-175K projection for “Hall Of Fame” was reduced to 135K, which meant Migos’ “Culture III” (projected for 126K) was within striking distance.
“Hall Of Fame” nonetheless appears to have held onto its lead. Hits Daily Double shared its final album numbers Friday, revealing that “Hall Of Fame” generated 145.7K in first-week US consumption. “Culture III” generated 138.3K.
Both albums generated the majority of their activity from streaming units, but they also managed to post stronger-than-expected sales figures. At mid-week, “Hall Of Fame” was only expected to sell 2.5K pure copies; it ended up moving 16.1K. “Culture III” was projected for 7.5K in sales and ended up moving 22.2K.
The higher-than-expected sales figures were why both albums topped their mid-week consumption forecasts.
Due Sunday, Billboard’s data may differ slightly from that reported by Hits. There is always a chance the discrepancy will be big enough to affect the outcome, but odds are good that Billboard will report the same hierarchy: “Hall Of Fame” at #1 on the Billboard 200, and “Culture III” at #2.
