BTS’ ‘Be’ Returns to No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales Chart, The Hold Steady & Mogwai Earn First Top 10s
BTS’ "Be" bolts back to No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated March 6), while The Hold Steady and Mogwai earn their first top 10s.
BTS’ Be bolts back to No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated March 6) after the album was issued on Feb. 19 in a new deluxe CD package, dubbed the “essential edition.” It’s the set’s third nonconsecutive week atop the list, after spending its first two frames at No. 1 (charts dated Dec. 5-12, 2020) following the album’s initial release on Nov. 20.
Be zooms from No. 43 to No. 1 with 28,000 sold (up 888%) in the U.S., effectively all from CD sales, according to MRC Data.
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. The new March 6, 2021-dated chart (where Be returns to No. 1) will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on March 2. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
No additional tracks were added to the essential edition of Be, which sells for $30.98 on BTS’ official U.S. webstore. The essential edition offers different packaging and internal paper goods (including one randomized collectible photocard) as compared to Be’s original CD release, which sold for $50.98 and had more paper goods (though none were randomized).
A quartet of former No. 1s trail Be on Top Album Sales, as Foo Fighters’ Medicine at Midnight is a non-mover at No. 2 on with 7,000 sold (down 49%), Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album climbs 4-3 with nearly 7,000 sold (down 31%), Taylor Swift’s Folklore rises 6-4 with just over 5,000 sold (down 30%) and Swift’s Evermore dips 3-5 with 4,500 (down 62%).
Rock band The Hold Steady log its first top 10 effort on Top Album Sales, as Open Door Policy starts at No. 6 with 4,500 copies sold. The act had previously topped out at No. 22 with its last chart entry, Thrashing Thru the Passion, on the Aug. 31, 2019-dated list.
23% of the album’s first-week sales were on vinyl LP (1,000 of 4,500).
Additionally, Open Door Policy also bows at No. 5 on the Tastemaker Albums chart, which ranks the top-selling albums at independent and small chain music stores. 26% of the album’s first-week total sales (a little over 1,000) came via indie and small chains.
The Pretty Reckless’ Death by Rock and Roll falls 1-7 on the new Top Album Sales chart (nearly 4,500; down 71%) and Harry Styles’ former No. 1 Fine Line climbs 9-8 (just over 4,000; down 20%).
Scottish rock band Mogwai arrives at No. 9 with As the Love Continues, marking the act’s first top 10. The set starts with 4,000 copies sold. Vinyl LP sales comprised over a half of that sum (58%), and Love launches at No. 13 on the Vinyl Albums chart.
Previous to the new album, Mogwai had never reached the top 40 on the Top Album Sales chart, having peaked at No. 55 with 2014’s Rave Tapes (Feb. 8, 2014-dated chart).
As the Love Continues also notched the band its first No. 1 on the U.K. Official Albums Chart – 25 years after the release of their debut single.
Closing out the new top 10 on Top Album Sales is Metallica’s self-titled album, which ascends 22-10 with just under 4,000 (down 4%).