The recently stagnant album chart got a big refresh this week, as new albums counted for four of the top 10 albums in the new Billboard 200, with Lil Durk‘s “7220” riding atop the crop with one of the biggest debuts of 2022 so far.
Also debuting in the top 10 are Ghost’s “Impera” at No. 2, Rex Orange County’s “Who Cares” at No. 5 and For King & Country’s “What Are We Waiting For?” at No. 7. (Yes, it’s a big week for question marks on the album chart.)
On the Billboard Hot 100, meanwhile, Glass Animals‘ “Heat Wave” continues its post-“Bruno” reign, enjoying its third week at the top.
Lil Durk’s 120,500 album-equivalent units were good enough for the rapper to claim the third-biggest bow of the young year, bettered by only the first weeks for the new Gunna and Weeknd albums back in January.
The rock band Ghost may have had to settle for No. 2 on the Billboard 200, but it was tops among actual album sales, by far. Fans bought 62,500 copies of the album in traditional physical or digital sales, a more than substantial part of its overall 70,000 album-equivalent units.
On-demand streams for Ghost stood at 9.11 million — a big figure for a rock unit these days, if only a fraction of the 164.81 million streams for Gunna. On the other hand, Gunna only sold 2,500 copies, to Ghost’s 62,500.
once the chart gets out of the “G” section, the “Encanto” soundtrack can be found pushed down two spots to No. 3, finally dislodged from the top spot after nine weeks at No. 1, the last eight of which were consecutive. Its downfall was not too tragic, with another 64,000 album-equivalent units representing a minor 12% decrease.
Morgan Wallen’s “Dangerous: The Double Album” moved down a slot to No. 4 with 46,000 units. Other holdovers include the Weeknd’s “Highlights” holding on at No. 6, and Gunna, Drake and Doja Cat at Nos. 8-10.
On the Hot 100, Glass Animals is at No. 1 for the third straight week. Radio (67.3 million audience impressions) and streams (15.2 million in the U.S.) were both up yet again by small percentage amounts.
Although no songs debuted in the top 10, “Enemy” by Imagine Dragons and JID did crack it for the first time, moving up four spots to No. 8, becoming what Billboard pointed out was Imagine Dragons’ first top 10 song since 2018.
Holding over in the top 10 were songs by the Kid Laroi, Kodak Black and Gayle at Nos. 2-4, the formerly indomitable “We Don’t Talk about Bruno” at No. 5, Justin Bieber and Adele at Nos. 6-7, and Lil Nas X and Ed Sheeran at Nos. 9-10.
The results were reported by Luminate, the data agency newly rechristened from its former name, MRC Data.
