While the unusual release strategy is surely bottlenecking this week’s sales total, Rihanna’s “ANTI” should still sell enough to win the weekly US album sales race.<\/p>\n
Based on its performance in the first few days of the January 29-February 4 tracking week, Hits Daily Double expects “ANTI” to sell 105-115,000 US copies (pure albums) this week. A total in that range would likely be enough to net Rihanna the #1 spot on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart.<\/p>\n
As of press time, the closest competition will come from Adele’s holdover smash “25” and Kevin Gates’ new “Islah.” The former is on track to sell 90-95,000 copies this week, while the latter should shift 85-95,000.<\/p>\n
Sia’s “This Is Acting” is pacing for fourth place with 70-75,000. Given that “1000 Forms Of Fear,” her previous, “Chandelier”-boosted album, sold 52,000 copies in its first week, a total over 70,000 would be an undeniable victory.<\/p>\n
From a pure sales standpoint, Charlie Puth’s new “Nine Track Mind” is likely on track for fifth place. Hits projects a 50-55,000 first week total.<\/p>\n
— While overall consumption data (sales + TEA [track sales\/10] + SEA [track streams\/1500]) is harder to project, “ANTI” is strongly expected to win on that front as well. A consumption victory would allow for #1 on the Billboard 200 (it would not be a debut; thanks to track sales, track streams, and a handful of early album sales, “Anti” appears at #27 on the current BB200).<\/p>\n
Certain to be in the Top 5 from a pure sales standponit, the Adele, Gates, and Sia albums should also land in the Top 5 on the Billboard 200. The one wildcard is Puth’s album, which may be bested in the consumption race by Justin Bieber’s “Purpose.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55079,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[183,1047,206],"tags":[5199,1756,5162,3913,5718,96,3305,5609,5291,129,2172,5717],"adace-sponsor":[],"yoast_head":"\n