NCT 127 lands its fourth No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated Oct. 21) as the Korean pop ensemble’s new release, Fact Check: The Fifth Album, starts atop the list with 29,000 copies sold in the U.S. in the week ending Oct. 12, according to Luminate.
Also in the top 10 of the new Top Album Sales chart, the latest releases from (G)I-DLE, Sufjan Stevens, Van Halen, Drake, Reba McEntire and Roger Waters all debut.
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.
(G)I-DLE notches its third top 10-charting effort on Top Album Sales, and its highest charting set yet, as Heat bows at No. 2 with 20,000 sold. Sufjan Stevens also logs his highest charting album, and fourth top 10, as Javelin pierces the chart at No. 3 with 14,000 sold. Olivia Rodrigo’s former No. 1 Guts dips 2-4 with 13,000 (down 13%). Van Halen’s boxed set The Collection II starts at No. 5 with 11,000 sold. The package contains remastered editions of the band’s four Sammy Hagar-era studio albums, along with a disc of rarities.
Drake’s For All the Dogs starts at No. 6 with 10,000 sold, Reba McEntire’s Not That Fancy flies in at No. 7 with 9,000 and Taylor Swift’s former leader Lover rises 12-8 with 8,500.
Roger Waters’ The Dark Side of the Moon Redux debuts at No. 9 with just over 8,000 sold. It’s a cover of Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon, with additional lyrics. Rounding out the top 10 is Swift’s chart-topping Midnights, rising 15-10 with 8,000 sold (up 5%).
In the week ending Oct. 12, there were 1.671 million albums sold in the U.S. (down 1.4% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 1.355 million (down 1%) and digital albums comprised 316,000 (down 3.2%).
There were 598,000 CD albums sold in the week ending Oct. 12 (up 4.3% week-over-week) and 747,000 vinyl albums sold (down 4.8%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 26.758 million (up less than 1% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 35.629 million (up 18.6%).
Overall year-to-date album sales total 77.191 million (up 5.5% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 62.802 million (up 9.8%) and digital album sales total 14.388 million (down 9.8%).
