Eric Church’s Heart bows at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated May 1) with 40,000 copies sold in the U.S. in the week ending April 22, according to MRC Data. It marks Church’s third No. 1 on the tally, after The Outsiders (in 2014) and Chief (2011).
Heart leads a busy top 10, as six more albums debut in the region from Greta Van Fleet, The Offspring, Cannibal Corpse, Liquid Tension Experiment, Tom Petty and Young Thug.
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.
Of Heart’s debut sales of 40,000, physical album sales comprise nearly 25,000 of that figure (13,000 CDs and 12,000 vinyl LPs) while digital album sales comprise a little under 16,000.
Heart is one of three new albums from Church, collectively referred to as Heart & Soul. Heart was released on April 16, the & album is available only to members of the artist’s Church Choir fan club, and Soul was released on April 23.
Rock group Greta Van Fleet sees its new studio album The Battle at Garden’s Gate debut at No. 2 on Top Album Sales with 39,000 copies sold. A sturdy 16,000 of that sum was on vinyl LP, and Battle also bows at No. 1 on the Vinyl Albums chart.
A pair of former No. 1s are next on Top Album Sales, as Taylor Swift’s Fearless (Taylor’s Version) falls 1-3 in its second week with 19,000 sold (down 89%) and Carrie Underwood’s My Savior is a non-mover at No. 4 with 18,000 sold (up 22%). The latter’s sales were helped by Underwood’s performance of songs from the album on the Academy of Country Music Awards (April 18 on CBS).
The Offspring return to Top Album Sales with the band’s first studio album since 2012, as Let the Bad Times Roll starts at No. 5 with 17,000 sold. The new release is the rock act’s seventh top 10, highest debut ever, and highest-charting album since Americana peaked at No. 2 on the Jan. 16, 1999 chart.
Metal band Cannibal Corpse notches its best sales week yet and first top 10 on Top Album Sales as Violence Unimagined arrives at No. 6 with 14,000 sold. The group’s previous best sales week came when 2012’s Torture sold 10,000 in its opening week. All told, Violence is the act’s seventh charting effort on Top Album Sales.
Cannibal Corpse made its Billboard chart debut in 1994 on the Heatseekers Albums chart with its fourth studio album, Bleeding, which peaked at No. 30. The group reached Top Album Sales for the first time with 1996’s Vile.
Rock supergroup Liquid Tension Experiment arrives at No. 7 on Top Album Sales with its third studio effort, LTE3, selling 9,000 copies. It’s the act’s first charting effort on Top Album Sales.
Tom Petty’s Finding Wildflowers (Alternate Versions) debuts at No. 8 on Top Album Sales with nearly 9,000 sold (with 5,000 of that sum on vinyl LP). The tracks on Finding Wildflowers were originally released as bonus material on the 2020 super deluxe CD and vinyl LP reissue of Petty’s 1994 album Wildflowers.
Rounding out the new top 10 on Top Album Sales are Ariana Grande’s former No. 1 Positions, which tumbles 2-9 with 8,000 (down 78% after its rush back up the list a week prior thanks to its vinyl release) and the Slime Language 2 album from Young Thug and his Young Stoner Life roster of artists. The latter starts at No. 10 with 6,000 sold.
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