ENHYPEN score their sixth top 10 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated Dec. 2), as the Korean pop ensemble’s Orange Blood bows at No. 2. The set sold 87,000 copies in the U.S. in the week ending Nov. 23, according to Luminate.
Also in the top 10 of the new Top Album Sales chart, Dolly Parton notches her first No. 1 on the 32-year-old list with the arrival of Rockstar; Taylor Swift has half of the top 10 thanks to sale pricing and promotions for Black Friday, and Cher’s Christmas vaults 23-10 after its release on vinyl.
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.
Of the 87,000 copies sold of Orange Blood, physical sales comprise 86,000 (all on CD) and digital download album sales comprise 1,000. Its sales were bolstered by its availability across a dozen collectible CD packages (including exclusive versions sold by Barnes & Noble, Target and Walmart; all with branded merchandise inside, some with randomized elements).
As previously reported, Parton’s Rockstar rules Top Album Sales with her biggest sales week of the modern era (since Luminate began electronically tracking sales in 1991), with 118,500 copies sold. Its sales were enhanced by a variety of iterations available on vinyl and CD.
Swift has half of the top 10 on Top Album Sales for a third time, thanks to sale pricing and promotions previewing the Black Friday shopping holiday on Nov. 24. (Swift previously had five of the top 10 on the Nov. 11-dated list, and six of the top 10 on the July 22-dated chart.) On the latest Top Album Sales ranking, Swift’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version) falls 2-3 (64,000; down 7%), Folklore jumps 14-6 (20,000; up 77%), Midnights rallies 11-7 (19,000; up 57%), Lover leaps 16-8 (18,000; up 80%) and Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) shoots 15-9 (17,000; up 72%). All are former No. 1s on the tally.
Stray Kids’ ROCK-STAR falls 1-4 in its second week on Top Album Sales, selling 46,000 copies (down 78%). Jung Kook’s chart-topping Golden dips 4-5 with 20,000 sold (down 42%).
Rounding out the top 10 is Cher’s Christmas, which returns to the region, zipping 23-10 with 14,000 sold (up 82%) following the set’s release on vinyl on Nov. 17. It sold a little over 6,000 copies on vinyl. Christmas debuted and peaked at No. 5 on the Nov. 4-dated chart.
In the week ending Nov. 23, there were 2.34 million albums sold in the U.S. (up 1.7% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 1.98 million (up 2.6%) and digital albums comprised 361,000 (down 3.1%).
There were 923,000 CD albums sold in the week ending Nov. 23 (down 3.4% week-over-week) and 1.046 million vinyl albums sold (up 8.6%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 31.921 million (up 2.9% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 41.441 million (up 17.1%).
Overall year-to-date album sales total 90.474 million (up 6.1% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 73.857 million (up 10.4%) and digital album sales total 16.617 million (down 9.4%).