Rock rules Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated March 20), as new albums from Chevelle, Kings of Leon and A Day to Remember debut at Nos. 1-3, respectively. It’s the first time in eight months the top three selling albums of the week in the U.S. have all been rock efforts.
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.
Chevelle achieves its first No. 1 on Top Album Sales, as the act’s latest studio set, Niratias, bows atop the list with 24,000 copies sold in the week ending March 11. In total, the new album is Chevelle’s fifth top 10 on the tally.
Kings of Leon’s latest release, When You See Yourself, debuts at No. 2 with 22,000 sold — scoring the band its fifth top 10 as well. A Day to Remember logs its second top 10, as its new studio effort You’re Welcome bows at No. 3 with 16,000 sold.
The last time Nos. 1-3 on Top Album Sales were all rock albums was on the July 11, 2020-dated chart. That week, Haim’s Women in Music, Pt. III debuted at No. 1, Khruangbin’s Mordechai started at No. 2 and Bob Dylan’s Rough and Rowdy Ways fell 1-3 in its second week. (Rock albums are defined as those that have charted on Billboard’s Top Rock Albums chart.)
Back on the new Top Album Sales chart, Billie Eilish’s When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? rises 11-4 with 6,100 sold (up 3%), Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album bounces 10-5 with 5,800 (down 9%) and BTS’ Be is a non-mover at No. 6 with 5,800 (down 20%).
Black Sabbath’s 1980 album Heaven and Hell debuts at No. 7 on Top Album Sales with just over 5,600 copies sold in the week ending March 11. The set was remastered and reissued on March 5 with bonus tracks. (All versions of Heaven and Hell are combined for sales tracking and charting purposes.) Heaven and Hell peaked at No. 28 on the Billboard 200 chart dated July 19, 1980.
Harry Styles’ former Top Album Sales No. 1 Fine Line rises 14-8 with 5,600 sold (up 11%) and Kids See Ghosts’ self-titled album re-enters the chart at No. 9 with nearly 5,600 sold (up 430%). The latter’s huge increase is owed to its release on translucent pink vinyl LP, exclusive to Target stores. On the Vinyl Albums chart, the set re-enters at No. 3 with 5,500 copies sold on vinyl.
Rounding out the new top 10 of the latest Top Album Sales chart is Willie Nelson’s jazz set, That’s Life, which falls 2-10 in its second week (5,400 sold; down 55%).
