Why Don’t We score their first No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart, as the group’s new studio album The Good Times and the Bad Ones arrives atop the list dated Jan. 30. The set sold 38,000 copies in the U.S. in the week ending Jan. 21, according to MRC Data.
The new album is the act’s second top 10, following 2018’s 8 Letters, which reached No. 3.
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. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
The Good Times and The Bad Ones also starts at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart, the quintet’s highest-charting effort on that tally. The new album was supported strongly by sales via the group’s official webstore, where an array of collectible versions of the album were available. All told, of its 38,000 sold in its first week, 33,000 were via CD sales and 6,000 were from digital album sales.
Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album drops 1-2 on Top Album Sales in its second week (22,000 sold; down 70%), while Eminem’s Music to Be Murdered By vaults 69-3 (15,000; up 592%) following the Jan. 15 release of the album’s deluxe reissue on CD. The deluxe edition, dubbed Music to Be Murdered By – Side B, added extra tracks to the year-old album and first dropped on digital retail and streamers on Dec. 18, 2020. All versions of the album are tracked together on the chart. A vinyl release of the deluxe package is due in August.
Taylor Swift’s former No. 1 Evermore falls 3-4 (11,000 sold; down 26%) while Harry Styles’ previous leader Fine Line is steady at No. 5 (a little over 9,000; up 13%).
Jeff Tweedy nabs his first top 10 on Top Album Sales as Love Is the King debuts at No. 6, with 9,000 sold. The set was first issued via digital retail and streamers on Oct. 23, 2020, and had sold about 2,000 downloads before its release on CD and vinyl LP on Jan. 15. In the week ending Jan. 21, the album’s CD sold about 2,500 copies while its vinyl LP moved 6,500.
Love Is the King also debuts at No. 1 on Tastemaker Albums (which ranks the top-selling albums of the week at indie stores), No. 2 on Vinyl Albums, No. 3 on Americana/Folk Albums and No. 6 on Alternative Albums.
Back on Top Album Sales, Barry Gibb’s all-star collaborations album Barry Gibb & Friends: Greenfields – The Gibb Brothers Songbook, Vol. 1 falls 2-7 with just over 8,000 sold (down 65%), Taylor Swift’s former No. 1 Folklore dips 4-8 with 8,000 (down 20%), NCT’s Resonance, Pt. 1 descends 6-9 with 6,000 (down 16%) and Chris Stapleton’s Starting Over declines 8-10 with just under 6,000 (down 11%).
