The singer’s latest LP saw sales increase ahead of the holiday, allowing it to easily hold off this week’s No. 2, a 10-year-old Christmas album.
It’s becoming tradition: As Christmas approached, people bought an Adele album.
In its fifth week out — a period ending Dec. 23 — the singer’s latest LP, “30,” saw its sales activity jump 16 percent from the week prior, a boost driven by traditional sales, not streams.
“30,” which holds at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, moved 180,500 copies as a full album for a total of 212,000 equivalent album units including streams (41 million, down 14 percent) and individual song downloads, according to MRC Data, Billboard’s tracking arm.
An album hasn’t had total sales this large in its fifth week since Adele’s previous LP, “25,” which was also released in the lead-up to the holiday season, back in 2015. (Some things, however, have changed: The singer’s fifth-week sales for “25” were still over a million last time around.)
“30” also becomes the fourth album released this year to spend at least five weeks at No. 1, following releases by Morgan Wallen (10 weeks on top), Olivia Rodrigo (five) and Drake (five), according to Billboard.
Also benefiting from the holiday season: Michael Bublé’s “Christmas,” which came out a decade ago, jumps to No. 2 on the album chart this week with 77,000 units. On the Hot 100, Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” originally released in 1994, holds at No. 1 for a second straight week and its seventh total since finally hitting the top spot in 2019.
Taylor Swift’s “Red (Taylor’s Version)” is steady at No. 3, totaling 76,000 units, while “Live Life Fast,” the new album from the Los Angeles rapper Roddy Ricch, debuts at No. 4 with 62,000, including 77 million streams. Ricch’s previous album, “Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial,” opened at No. 1 in 2019 and spent four total weeks on top. Rodrigo’s “Sour” rounds out the Top 5.
Source: Music - nytimes.com
