Plus: Marilyn Manson scores 10th top 10 album with arrival of ‘We Are Chaos.’
Rapper YoungBoy Never Broke Again achieves his third No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart in less than a year, as the fittingly titled Top debuts atop the tally. The set was released on Sept. 11 via Never Broke Again/Artist Partner Group/Atlantic and earned 126,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Sept. 17, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Sept. 26-dated chart (where Top debuts at No. 1) will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Tuesday, Sept. 22. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
Of Top’s 126,000 equivalent album units earned in its first week, 106,000 are from SEA units (equaling 156.32 million on-demand streams of the set’s songs in its first week), 19,000 comprise album sales and a little under 1,000 are in TEA units.
Top is YoungBoy’s third total No. 1 album, and all have come within 11 months’ time. The 20-year-old first topped the list with AI YoungBoy 2, which bowed at No. 1 on the chart dated Oct. 26, 2019. He scored his second leader with 38 Baby 2 on May 9, 2020, followed by Top on the Sept. 26, 2020, chart.
The last act to score three No. 1s faster was BTS, which logged its first three No. 1s in a slightly quicker clip than YoungBoy: 10 months and 25 days, with Love Yourself: Tear (June 2, 2018), Love Yourself: Answer (Sept. 8, 2018) and Love Yourself: Persona (April 27, 2019). The last solo act to land three No. 1s faster than YoungBoy was Future, when he notched his first three No. 1s in just six months and three weeks with DS2 (Aug. 8, 2015); What a Time to Be Alive, with Drake (Oct. 10, 2015); and Evol (Feb. 27, 2016).
YoungBoy has charted a bevy of albums in a swift amount of time on the Billboard 200. Since debuting on the list dated Aug. 26, 2017, he’s placed 15 albums on the list, including four EPs. No other artist has charted as many albums of newly recorded material in that same span of time. (Only the Grateful Dead has placed more entries on the chart since Aug. 26, 2017 – with 22 charting efforts. But all of those were archival sets or compilation albums.)
With Warner Music’s Atlantic atop the Billboard 200, Warner breaks up the chart-topping monopoly Universal Music Group (UMG) had for the previous 15 weeks. From the June 13 through Sept. 19 charts, a UMG title sat at No. 1.
At No. 2 on the new Billboard 200, Pop Smoke’s former leader Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon is a non-mover with 73,000 equivalent album units earned (down 2 percent), while Juice WRLD’s previous No. 1 Legends Never Die is also stationary at No. 3 with 54,000 units (down 5 percent).
Taylor Swift’s former No. 1 Folklore rises one spot to No. 4 with 44,000 equivalent album units earned (down 9 percent) while the original Broadway cast recording of Hamilton: An American Musical is up one rung to No. 5 with 41,000 units (down 6 percent).
With Hamilton (released via Hamilton Uptown/Atlantic) in the top five alongside YoungBoy’s Top, Atlantic has two titles in the top five at the same time for the first time since May 9, when YoungBoy’s 38 Baby 2 debuted at No. 1 while Lil Uzi Vert’s Eternal Atake (Generation Now/Atlantic) was at No. 3.
Lil Baby’s former No. 1 My Turn climbs 7-6 on the new Billboard 200 with 40,000 equivalent album units earned (down 1 percent), while Big Sean’s Detroit 2 falls 1-7 in its second week with 37,000 units (down 64 percent).
Rock band Marilyn Manson scores its 10th top 10 album on the Billboard 200 as We Are Chaos bows at No. 8. The set, which was released via Loma Vista/Concord, enters with 31,000 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum, 28,000 is from album sales (encouraged by a variety physical formats of the album on offer), 3,000 from SEA units (equaling 4 million in on-demand streams of the set’s tracks) and less than 1,000 from TEA units.
We Are Chaos was available in an array of vinyl LP editions (including exclusive color variant versions for Target, Best Buy, indie retailers and the band’s webstore), as well as a CD deluxe edition with bonus tracks, and even multiple cassette variants. The many permutations of the album encouraged sales, as the set also debuts at No. 1 on the Album Sales chart, the Vinyl Albums chart (with 8,000 sold on vinyl LP) and the Tastemakers chart. The latter ranks the biggest selling albums of the week at independent and small chain retailers.
Marilyn Manson previously reached the top 10 on the Billboard 200 with Heaven Upside Down (No. 8 in 2017), The Pale Emperor (No. 8, 2015), Born Villain (No. 10, 2012), The High End of Low (No. 4, 2009), Eat Me, Drink Me (No. 8, 2007), Lest We Forget: The Best Of (No. 9, 2004), The Golden Age of Grotesque (No. 1, 2003), Mechanical Animals (No. 1, 1998) and Antichrist Superstar (No. 3, 1996).
Closing out the Billboard 200’s new top 10 are Rod Wave’s Pray 4 Love, falling 8-9 with 30,000 equivalent album units earned (down 8 percent), and Post Malone’s previous No. 1 Hollywood’s Bleeding, steady at No. 10 with 29,000 units (down 3 percent).