Tomorrow X Together arrives at No. 1 on Billboard’s Album Sales chart, as the group’s Minisode1: Blue Hour EP bows atop the chart dated Nov. 21. The effort sold 18,000 copies in the U.S. in the week ending Nov. 12, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data — the best sales week yet for the South Korean pop quintet. Blue Hour is the group’s fourth charting title on Album Sales, and first to reach the top 10.
Elsewhere in the top 10, Kylie Minogue lands her best sales week in a decade with the No. 2 debut of Disco, a pair of Christmas albums from Carrie Underwood and Dolly Parton see big gains, Taylor Swift and Harry Styles jump back into the top 10 and NAV’s new mixtape Emergency Tsunami starts at No. 9.
Billboard’s Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The Album Sales 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 Nielsen Music/MRC Data. Pure album sales were the measurement solely 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.
Sales of Tomorrow X Together’s Blue Hour were buoyed by the availability of four deluxe physical CD variants of the album (one of which was a Target-exclusive version), with 98% of its first-week sales coming from its CD editions. The remaining 2% were driven by digital album sales. Blue Hour was released via BigHit/Republic.
The CD editions were issued in collectible packaging containing such items as a poster, stickers and a photobook, as well as three randomized items (photocard, postcard and a photo).
Blue Hour also debuts at No. 25 on the Billboard 200 chart, marking the group’s first top 40 effort. (The Billboard 200 ranks the most popular albums of the week based on multi-metric consumption, combining album sales, track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units.)
Kylie Minogue dances onto the Album Sales chart at No. 2 with her latest studio effort, Disco. The set was released via Darenote/BMG and sold 15,000 copies in its first week — the pop superstar’s best sales week in over a decade. Minogue last sold more in a week when her 2010 album Aphrodite launched with 18,000 sold (chart dated July 24, 2010). Her latest also lands Minogue her best rank on Album Sales, one-upping the No. 3 debut and peak of Fever in 2002.
Disco was released in a number of configurations, including a standard 12-track edition and a 16-track deluxe version. Overall, Disco sold a little over 6,000 digital album downloads and nearly 9,000 in physical sales (across multiple CD, vinyl and cassette editions).
Disco performed well on vinyl, debuting at No. 5 on the Vinyl Albums chart with 3,500 sold. The vinyl LP was available in a standard black edition, along with color variants exclusive to Minogue’s webstore, Barnes & Noble and Spotify.
For fans of the old school cassette format, the cassette edition of Disco sold 500 copies in the U.S.
Disco also debuts at No. 26 on the Billboard 200 chart, securing Minogue her highest charting effort on that tally since 2010, when Aphrodite debuted and peaked at No. 19 (that July 24).
At No. 3 on the latest Album Sales chart, Carrie Underwood’s holiday set My Gift rises five spots with 14,000 copies sold (up 4%). The album will likely continue to see weekly gains as the Christmas holiday approaches.
Taylor Swift’s Folklore vaults from No. 37 to No. 4 with 14,000 sold (up 309%) thanks to a surge in vinyl album sales from her official webstore. Vinyl album sales comprise 9,000 of Folklore’s sales for the week. The vinyl edition of the album has been available to order since Folklore was released on July 24, but its manufacturing and shipment was delayed. (Sales of physical albums only count once they are fulfilled to the customer.)
Bruce Springsteen’s Letter to You falls 2-5 in its third week on Album Sales with 13,000 sold (down 37%).
Notably, Letter to You is selling a bit better than Springsteen’s last studio album, 2019’s Western Stars. Letter debuted with 92,000 sold, while Western bowed with 61,500. Then Letter moved 21,000 in its second week, while Western sold 14,000 in week two. And, in their third weeks, Letter sold 13,000, while Western sold 10,000.
Letter to You has sold 126,000 copies in its first three weeks. Western sold 85,000 copies in its first three weeks, and its total sales to date stand at 149,000. If Letter continues its sturdy weekly sales performance, it could surpass Western’s total sales.
Dolly Parton’s holiday album A Holly Dolly Christmas jingles 14-6 on the new Album Sales chart with 11,000 copies sold (up 38%), while Harry Styles’ Fine Line leaps 23-7 with a little more than 8,000 sold (up 58%) thanks in part to an increase in vinyl LP sales. Ariana Grande’s Positions dips from No. 1 to No. 8 in its second week on the list, with 8,000 sold (down 81%).
NAV’s new mixtape Emergency Tsunami breezes in at No. 9 in with 7,000 copies sold in its first week, while NCT’s Resonance, Pt. 1 climbs 15-10 with nearly 7,000 sold (though its down 5%).
