TWICE and LE SSERAFIM make history on Billboard’s 32-year-old Top Album Sales chart (dated March 9), as the South Korean female pop groups debut at Nos. 1 and 2 — marking the first time two all-women groups have been in the top two positions at the same time.
Top Album Sales’ chart history dates to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate.
TWICE’s With YOU-th launches at No. 1 with 90,000 copies sold in the U.S. in the week ending Feb. 29, according to Luminate. LE SSERAFIM’s Easy starts at No. 2 with 34,000 copies sold. The majority of each album’s sales come from CD purchases in assorted collectible editions, as is usual with major K-pop releases
Also in the top 10 of the new Top Album Sales chart, the latest albums from French Montana and Ace Frehley arrive, while BTS’ former No. 1 Love Yourself: Tear re-enters the chart in the top 10 following its release on vinyl.
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. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
For TWICE, With YOU-th marks the fourth No. 1 on Top Album Sales and fifth top 10 overall. For LE SSERAFIM, Easy is the act’s third top 10 set.
At No. 3 on Top Album Sales, French Montana’s Mac & Cheese 5 debuts with 22,500 copies sold. Of that sum, physical sales comprise 19,000 (9,000 on vinyl — his best week on the configuration, 10,000 on CD) and digital sales comprise about 3,500. Sales were boosted by the album’s availability across six CD variants (three alternative covers, and three signed editions each with a different cover) and three vinyl variants (all with alternative covers) — and all were sold through the artist’s webstore. The physical albums were deeply discounted to $5 for standard vinyl and CD editions, and $10 for the signed CD editions. The digital album was also issued in three variants: a standard album (clean and explicit), a deluxe edition (with one bonus track, clean and explicit) and a super deluxe edition, dubbed the “Versions” variant (with all of the album’s standard explicit tracks, plus versions of each song in clean, sped-up, slowed-down, instrumental and acapella mixes).
Mac & Cheese 5 is French Montana’s fourth top 10-charting effort on Top Album Sales and his highest-charting set yet, surpassing the No. 4 peak of his three earlier top 10 sets.
Ace Frehley logs his highest-charting album ever on Top Album Sales, as his latest release, 10,000 Volts, charges in at No. 4 with 13,000 copies sold. Of that sum, vinyl sales comprise 5,500, marking the former KISS guitarist’s biggest sales week on vinyl since Luminate began tracking sales in 1991. In total, 10,000 Volts is Frehley’s fifth top 10-charting set on Top Album Sales.
BTS’ former No. 1 Love Yourself: Tear re-enters Top Album Sales at No. 5 with about 9,500 sold — nearly all from vinyl sales, as the album was released on the configuration for the first time during the tracking week. With nearly 9,500 copies sold on vinyl, the album also bows at No. 1 on the Vinyl Albums chart, BTS’ second leader on that list, following Love Yourself: Her in 2023.
Four former No. 1s, all from Taylor Swift, are next on Top Album Sales. 1989 (Taylor’s Version) falls 3-6 (9,000; down 19%); Lover dips 4-7 (7,000; down 22%); Midnights slips 7-8 (6,000; down 19%); and Folklore descends 8-9 (nearly 6,000; down 21%). Bob Marley and The Wailers’ Legend: The Best of Bob Marley and The Wailers, rises 11-10 (nearly 6,000; though down 17%), marking the set’s first week in the top 10 since April 17, 2021, when it ranked at No. 9. (The album earlier peaked at No. 5 on the Sept. 20, 2014-dated chart.) The hits album returns to the top 10 on the latest chart following publicity and promotion generated by the release and success of the Marley biopic film Bob Marley: One Love.
In the week ending Feb. 29, there were 1.276 million albums sold in the U.S. (up 9.4% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 976,000 (up 13.8%) and digital albums comprised 300,000 (down 2.9%).
There were 533,000 CD albums sold in the week ending Feb. 29 (up 30.6% week-over-week) and 438,000 vinyl albums sold (down 1.7%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 3.875 million (down 29.9% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 4.197 million (down 47.3%).
Overall year-to-date album sales total 10.783 million (down 35.3% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 8.113 million (down 40.2%) and digital album sales total 2.669 million (down 13.7%).
This story originally appeared on Billboard
