HARDY, Maneskin, Wilco & More Shake Up Album Sales Chart’s Top 10

HARDY nabs his first No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated Feb. 4), as his latest effort The Mockingbird & The Crow flies in atop the tally. The set, a half-rock and half-country project, bows with 20,000 copies sold in the U.S. in the week ending Jan. 26, according to Luminate. HARDY previously notched one entry on the list, with the No. 8-peaking A Rock in 2020.

Also in the top 10, Maneskin’s new studio effort Rush! debuts at No. 3; Wilco’s 2022 album Cruel Country re-enters at No. 4 – hitting the top 10 for the first time – after its wide release on CD and vinyl; the soundtrack to Halloween Ends scares up a No. 7 entry following its vinyl release; and Trippie Redd’s new Mansion Musik opens at No. 9.

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 Mockingbird & The Crow’s 20,000 sold, physical sales comprise 5,000 (4,000 CDs and 1,000 vinyl LPs) and digital album sales comprise 15,000. The album’s start also marks HARDY’s best sales week, surpassing the 5,000 sold in the debut frame of A Rock in 2020 (Sept. 19, 2020-dated chart).

As The Mockingbird & The Crow launches at No. 1 on Top Album Sales, it halts the chart-topping run of Taylor Swift’s Midnights, which spend its first 13 chart weeks at No. 1. On the new chart, it falls to No. 2 with 17,000 sold (down 21%). The set continues to be a hot-seller on vinyl, with 9,000 of its sales for the week on vinyl. In the latest tracking week, Midnights’ total U.S. vinyl sales crept past 1 million copies. Swift’s popularity on vinyl is well noted, and in 2022, one out of every 25 vinyl albums sold in the U.S. were by Swift.

Rock band Maneskin sees its new album Rush! bow at No. 3 on Top Album Sales with 11,000 copies sold. It’s the first charting entry for the act and its best sales week.

Wilco’s Cruel Country, which was released last May via digital retailers and streaming services, re-enters the chart at a new high of No. 4 after its release on CD and vinyl (7,000 sold across all formats; up from a negligible sales total the previous week). Cruel Country had previously topped out at No. 31 on July 2, 2022-dated list, following its limited CD release timed to Record Store Day 2022’s drop on June 18 last year. All told, Cruel Country is the eighth top 10-charting effort on Top Album Sales for Wilco, and it ties for the act’s highest-charting effort on the list. (A whopping five of the band’s eight top 10s all peaked at No. 4.)

Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours falls 2-5 on Top Album Sales with 6,000 sold (down 20%) and Michael Jackson’s Thriller dips 5-6 with 5,000 sold (down 13%).

The soundtrack to the film Halloween Ends debuts at No. 7 on Top Album Sales following its vinyl release on Jan. 20. The set, across all formats, sold nearly 5,000 copies for the week. Halloween Ends is the highest charting soundtrack from the Halloween franchise on the 31-year-old chart, surpassing the No. 9 peak of Halloween Kills in 2021.

SZA’s Ctrl vaults 57-8 on Top Album Sales with nearly 5,000 sold – mostly from vinyl sales – after a replenishment of stock. Trippie Redd’s new Mansion Musik bows at No. 9 with nearly 5,000 sold (the rapper’s fourth top 10 effort), while Harry Styles’ former leader Harry’s House rises 11-10 with a little over 4,000 sold (down 7%).

In the week ending Jan. 26, there were 1.653 million albums sold in the U.S. (down 6.3% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 1.312 million (down 9.3%) and digital albums comprised 341,000 (down 7.6%).

There were 523,000 CD albums sold in the week ending Jan. 26 (down 2.8% week-over-week) and 782,000 vinyl albums sold (down 13.1%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 2.330 (down 3% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 3.478 million (up 27.4%).

Overall year-to-date album sales total 7.377 million (up 6.2% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 6.044 million (up 13.5%) and digital album sales total 1.333 (down 17.9%).