Agust D (an alias of BTS’ Suga) sees his solo debut studio effort D-Day bow at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated May 6), selling 122,000 copies in the United States in the week ending April 27, according to Luminate. That marks the fourth-largest sales week for an album in 2023.
D-Day is the first leader for Agust D, and he’s the second member of BTS to achieve a No. 1 on Top Album Sales. He follows Jimin, who bowed at No. 1 earlier this year with FACE (April 8-dated chart). BTS itself has notched six No. 1s on Top Albums Sales, most recently with the retrospective collection Proof in 2022.
Like many K-pop releases, the CD edition of D-Day was issued in collectible CD packages (seven total, including exclusives for Target, Walmart and the Weverse webstore) each containing a standard set of items and randomized elements (in this case, photo cards). It was also available as a standard digital download album, as well as three alternative cover digital download variants that were sold exclusively through the artist’s official webstore. Of D-Day’s first-week sales, 90% were CDs, while the remaining 10% were digital album downloads. The set was not available in any other retail format (such as vinyl or cassette).
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.
Taylor Swift’s Record Store Day-exclusive vinyl release Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions launches at No. 3 on Top Album Sales with 75,000 sold – all from sales of its vinyl LP. It’s the single-largest sales week for an album on vinyl in 2023. It’s the 15th top 10 for Swift on Top Album Sales.
The live acoustic album, which was previously available only as bonus tracks on a deluxe digital and streaming edition of her Folklore studio album (released in 2020), was issued on vinyl LP (its first physical release of any kind) for Record Store Day (RSD) (April 22) at participating independent record stores. It was previously announced that Long Pond’s production run for Record Store Day would be 75,000 copies in the United States, and the set sold out instantly. It’s typical for many albums and singles to garner unique and limited edition runs exclusively for the annual independent record store day celebration.
Typically, high-profile Record Store Day-exclusive titles might have a production run of 10,000-to-20,000 in the United States. For Record Store Day 2022, there were 10 titles that had pressings ranging from 10,000 to 18,000, but nothing larger. For Record Store Day 2023, Swift’s Long Pond title had by far the largest production run of any RSD title. Pearl Jam’s live concert album Give Way had the second-biggest production run, with 15,500 vinyl LPs pressed.
Metallica’s former leader 72 Seasons falls 1-3 in its second week on Top Album Sales with 25,000 sold (down 81%).
Pearl Jam’s Give Way starts at No. 4 with 22,000 copies sold – representing vinyl, CD and digital download sales combined. The set made its retail debut on both vinyl LP (one set available at indie retailers and one sold through the band’s fan club) and CD (exclusive to indie stores), as well as a digital download. The album was recorded in 1998 during the group’s Yield Tour. Give Way is the 17th top 10 effort on Top Album Sales for Pearl Jam.
Swift has a second title in the top 10, as her chart-topping Midnights dips 4-5 with a little over 15,000 sold (up 20%). Melanie Martinez’s former No. 1 Portals falls 3-6 with 14,000 (up 5%), Lana Del Rey’s Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd. is a non-mover at No. 7 with 11,000 sold (up 25%) and Boygenius’ The Record climbs 13-8 with 10,000 (up 47%).
Coming in at No. 9 is a re-entry from The Cure with its live album Show, and Stevie Nicks debuts at No. 10 with Bella Donna: Live 1981.
Show’s sales (just over 10,000) are driven almost entirely from a new picture disc vinyl release of the album for Record Store Day. The set was originally released widely in 1993 and initially peaked at No. 42. Show was recorded during The Cure’s 1992 Wish album tour.
For Nicks, Bella Donna: Live 1981 made its debut as stand-alone album for Record Store Day, and only on vinyl. It sold 10,000 copies. Its tracks were originally commercially released on an album as part of a deluxe edition of Nicks’ 1981 studio album Bella Donna, released in 2016. The Bella Donna: Live 1981 album was recorded during Nicks’ White Winged Dove Tour on Dec. 13, 1981.
In the week ending April 27, there were 2.927 million albums sold in the U.S. (up 44.4% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 2.583 million (up 54.3%) and digital albums comprised 339,000 (down 2.8%).
There were 760,000 CD albums sold in the week ending April 27 (up 9.6% week-over-week) and 1.809 vinyl albums sold (up 87.5%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 11.224 million (up 4.9% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 16.296 million (up 28.7%).
Overall year-to-date album sales total 33.707 million (up 10.9% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 27.699 million (up 17.8%) and digital album sales total 6.009 million (down 12.5%).
