Usher lands his fifth No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated Feb. 24) as his new studio album, Coming Home, arrives atop the list. The set sold 53,000 copies in the U.S. in the week ending Feb. 15, according to Luminate. Usher previously topped the list with Looking 4 Myself (in 2012), Raymond V Raymond (2010), Here I Stand (2008) and Confessions (2004).
Elsewhere in the top 10 of the new Top Album Sales chart, the latest albums from P1Harmony, Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign, and iTZY arrive.
Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. The new Feb. 24, 2024-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Feb. 21, one day later than usual, owed to the Presidents’ Day holiday in the U.S. on Feb. 19. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
Of Coming Home’s 53,000 copies sold, digital sales comprise 47,500 and physical sales comprise 5,500 (4,000 on CD and 1,500 on vinyl). Its start marks the largest sales week for an R&B album in more than four years, since Lionel Richie’s live set Hello From Las Vegas sold 65,000 copies in its first week (on the list dated Aug. 31, 2019). Richie’s first-week sales were boosted by a concert ticket/album sale redemption offer. Ticket/album bundles ceased to count toward chart sales as of Oct. 9, 2020. (R&B albums are defined as those that have charted on Billboard’s Top R&B Albums chart.)
Coming Home was available to purchase in its first week as a standard digital download, a standard CD, five different vinyl variants, two deluxe boxed sets and a deluxe digital album with a bonus track and alternative cover art. The latter was promoted as a SKIMS exclusive (alongside Usher’s new starring role in a SKIMS campaign) and sold for a limited time via SKIMS’ official store and Usher’s own webstore. Both versions of the digital album were deeply discounted during the set’s opening week.
Coming Home was released on Feb. 9, two days before Usher took the stage as the 2024 Super Bowl halftime headliner. The 2024 Super Bowl was the most-watched broadcast in American TV history, with 123.4 million viewers across CBS and the game’s simulcasts across Nickelodeon, Univision, Paramount+ and other digital platforms. Usher didn’t perform any material from the new album during the halftime show, focusing instead on familiar favorites from the past, such as “My Boo” (with Alicia Keys), “U Got It Bad” (with H.E.R.) “OMG” (with Will.i.am) and the show-closing “Yeah!” (with Lil Jon and Ludacris).
P1Harmony’s Killin’ It debuts at No. 2 on Top Album Sales with 18,000 copies sold – nearly all from CD sales. Like many K-pop projects, the set was issued in collectible CD packages, 16 in total, each containing branded merchandise and randomized elements. It’s the best sales week for P1Harmony, its highest-charting effort, and second top 10.
Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) and Ty Dolla $ign’s collaborative album Vultures 1 starts at No. 3 with 18,000 sold – all from digital downloads.
Vultures 1, released on Feb. 10, was initially only available to purchase as a digital download. The original 16-track set sold through leading digital retailers, as well as Ye’s own official webstore. Physical versions of the album on CD and vinyl are expected to be released at a later date, and Ye’s store is accepting pre-orders for both presently. The set’s first-week sales were boosted by aggressive sale pricing. Vultures 1 is the 12th top 10 for Ye and first for Ty.
Taylor Swift’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version) falls 1-4 with 15,000 copies sold (though up 28%).
iTZY’s Born to Be bows at No. 5 with 14,000 copies sold, largely from CD sales. It’s the fifth top 10-charting effort for the Korean pop act. As is customary for many K-pop project, the album was available in multiple collectible CD editions – 10 in total – all containing branded merchandise with randomized elements.
Swift has three more albums in the top 10, as Lover falls 3-6 (12,000; up 13%), Midnights dips 2-7 (11,000; down less than 1%) and Folklore rises 10-8 (9,000; up 57%). Toby Keith’s 35 Biggest Hits drops 4-9 with 7,000 sold (down 35%) and Noah Kahan’s Stick Season climbs 14-10 with nearly 7,000 (up 48%) following its deluxe reissue on Feb. 9 with additional tracks.
In the week ending Feb. 15, there were 1.258 million albums sold in the U.S. (up 7.8% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 906,000 (up 9.3%) and digital albums comprised 353,000 (up 4%).
There were 435,000 CD albums sold in the week ending Feb. 15 (up 11.3% week-over-week) and 467,000 vinyl albums sold (up 7.7%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 2.933 million (down 31.5% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 3.314 million (down 46.7%).
Overall year-to-date album sales total 8.341 million (down 35.5% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 6.279 million (down 40.5%) and digital album sales total 2.062 million (down 12.7%).
This story originally appeared on Billboard
