Shawn Mendes scores his fourth No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart, as his latest studio effort, Wonder, bows atop the tally. The set earned 89,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Dec. 10, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data.
Meanwhile, the top 10 is very festive, as half of the titles in the region are Christmas albums for the first time since 2013.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Dec. 19-dated chart (where Wonder bows at to No. 1) will be posted in full on Billboard’s website on Dec. 15. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
Of Wonder’s 89,000 equivalent album units earned in the tracking week ending Dec. 3, album sales comprise 54,000, SEA units comprise 34,000 (equaling 46.92 million on-demand streams of the album’s songs) and TEA units comprise 1,000.
All four of Mendes’ full-length studio albums have now debuted at No. 1. He began his chart career with his introductory project, The Shawn Mendes EP, which debuted and peaked at No. 5 on the Aug. 16, 2014-dated chart. He followed it up with his debut full-length studio set, Handwritten (No. 1 on May 2, 2015), and then his next studio effort, Illuminate (No. 1, Oct. 15, 2016). He then charted two live albums (Live at Madison Square Garden, No. 200 on Jan. 14, 2017, and MTV Unplugged, No. 71 on Nov. 25, 2017) before seeing his self-titled third studio set bow atop the list dated June 9, 2018.
Wonder was led by its title track, which peaked at No. 18 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 14 on the Pop Songs airplay chart. The album’s second radio single, “Monster,” a co-billed track with Justin Bieber, has so far peaked at No. 8 on the Hot 100 and No. 19 on Pop Songs (through the most recently published charts, dated Dec. 12).
Bad Bunny’s El Ultimo Tour del Mundo falls to No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with 57,000 equivalent album units earned (down 50%), following its history-making debut at No. 1 a week ago – when it became the first all-Spanish-language album to top the list.
Ariana Grande’s former No. 1 Positions rises a spot to No. 3 with just over 55,000 equivalent album units (up 4%).
Michael Bublé’s former No. 1 Christmas album climbs 6-4 with 55,000 equivalent album units (up 14%). It leads a total of five holiday albums in the top 10, the first time that’s happened in seven years. Also joining in the merriment: Carrie Underwood’s My Gift (9-5, a new peak, with 53,000 units; up 19%), Nat King Cole’s The Christmas Song (12-7 with 42,000 units; up 20%), Pentatonix’s The Best of Pentatonix Christmas (16-8 with just over 39,000; up 22%) and Mariah Carey’s Merry Christmas (15-10 with 38,000; up 17%).
The last time five holiday albums were among the top 10 occurred on the Dec. 21, 2013-dated chart. That week, the top 10 housed Kelly Clarkson’s Wrapped in Red (No. 3), The Robertsons’ Duck the Halls: A Robertson Family Christmas (No. 5), Pentatonix’s PTXmas (EP) (No. 7), Bublé’s Christmas (No. 8) and Mary J. Blige’s A Mary Christmas (No. 10).
Notably, Underwood’s My Gift previously peaked at its debut rank of No. 8 on the Oct. 10-dated chart, following its release on Sept. 25. With its 9-5 jump on the new Billboard 200, it also becomes the highest charting newly released holiday album since Pentatonix’s A Pentatonix Christmas in late 2016 and early 2017. A Pentatonix Christmas was released on Oct. 21, 2016, debuted at No. 3 on the Nov. 12, 2016-dated chart and peaked at No. 1 for two weeks (Jan. 7-14, 2017).
As for the remaining non-holiday albums in the latest top 10: Pop Smoke’s former No. 1 Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon dips 5-6 with 47,000 equivalent album units (down 2%) and Megan Thee Stallion’s Good News descends 7-9 (39,000; down 17%).
