Kacey Musgraves scores her first No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated Sept. 25) as her latest studio effort Star-Crossed debuts atop the list with 47,000 copies sold in the U.S. in the week ending Sept. 16, according to MRC Data. It’s her second-largest sales week ever, trailing only the debut week of Pageant Material in 2015 (55,000; chart dated July 11, 2015).
Of Star-Crossed’s opening-week sales, a whopping 26,000 were sold on vinyl LP — marking the largest sales week for a country album on vinyl since MRC Data began tracking sales in 1991. Previously, the best week on wax for a country set, since 1991, was held by Sturgill Simpson’s Cuttin’ Grass, Vol. 1: The Butcher Shoppe Sessions, when it sold 15,000 copies in its first week of availability on vinyl (Dec. 26, 2020-dated chart).
Star-Crossed also opens at No. 1 on Billboard’s Vinyl Albums chart, Musgraves’ second leader on the tally, following her last studio effort, 2018’s Golden Hour.
Of Star-Crossed’s sales of 47,000, physical album sales comprise 37,000 (with 26,000 on vinyl; 9,000 on CD and nearly 2,000 on cassette) and 10,000 via digital download.
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 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.
Metallica’s self-titled 1991 album jumps from No. 63 to No. 2 on Top Album Sales following its 30th anniversary reissue on Sept. 10. The album sold 29,000 copies in the week ending Sept. 16 (up 1,365%), with all versions of the album – old and new – combined for tracking and charting purposes.
Iron Maiden’s Senjutsu falls from No. 1 to No. 3 in its second week on the list, with 16,000 sold (down 74%) while Aaliyah’s long-out-of-print self-titled 2001 album re-enters at No. 4 with 15,000 sold after its reissue on Sept. 10.
Olivia Rodrigo’s former No. 1 Sour falls 3-5 with 14,000 sold (down 27%) while ATEEZ’s Zero: Fever Part.3 debuts at No. 6 with 12,000 sold. A pair of chart-toppers are next, as Halsey’s If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power dips 5-7 with 9,000 sold (down 47%) and Billie Eilish’s Happier Than Ever falls 6-8 with 8,000 sold (down 31%). The latter surpasses Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album to become the third-biggest selling album of 2021 with 264,000 sold (ahead of Wallen’s 259,000). Taylor Swift’s Evermore and Rodrigo’s Sour are the Nos. 1 and 2 sellers, with 424,000 and 350,000 sold, respectively.
Hayley Williams’ Flowers for Vases / Descansos re-enters the chart at No. 9 – a new high – with 7,000 sold. Nearly all of the sales came from its vinyl LP release, which dropped on Sept. 10, following the album’s initial release on streamers and via digital retailers on Feb. 5. (The set previously spent one week on the list, on the chart dated Feb. 20, when it debuted at No. 59 from 2,000 in download sales.)
Rounding out the new top 10 on Top Album Sales is Drake’s Certified Lover Boy, which drops 2-10 in its second week with nearly 7,000 sold (down 86%).
