The race for the No. 1 album in America betweet One Direction's Made in the A.M. and Justin Bieber's Purpose has come to an end... and the win goes to Bieber. After a big battle for sales, both 1D and the Biebz fared well with major units moved, but at the end of the day, Bieber leads the Billboard 200, in a top 10 that is chock full of debuts.
Purpose marks the sixth No. 1 album for Bieber, according to Billboard, and he marked the occasion with massive numbers; the new record is his best-selling ever with 649,000 album equivalent units. The vast majority of those records, 522,000, were pure album sales. The singles success of "Sorry" and "Where Are You Now?" also boosted Bieber's sales numbers as well as his record-breaking number of streams. The album is thus far the best selling of 2015, but that record is expected only to last a week, when Adele's 25 takes over the charts.
The sales race between Bieber and One Direction seems to have helped both acts sell far more copies than they would have otherwise. Though Bieber took the win, 1D also had impressive sales, as Made in the A.M. starts its chart run at No. 2 and 459,000 album equivalent units, 402,000 of which were pure album sales. Both sets blew their projected sales out of the water.
Beneath the big shot debuts, eight albums in total debuted in the top 10 of the Billboard 200. Logic and Jeezy bring some rap to the top of the charts, as their respective new albums The Incredible True Story and Church In These Streets arrive at Nos. 3 and 4. While there was a massive drop off from One Direction, Logic starts his chart run with 135,000 units and Jeezy moved a respectable 107,000 units.
The top five is rounded out with a little country courtesy of Chris Young's I'm Comin' Over, which moved 65,000 units, 57,000 of which were albums sold.
To continue the big parade of debuts, Trans-Siberian Orchestra's latest non-holiday record Letters from the Labyrinth starts at No. 7 with 46,000 units moved, which were almost completely from sales. Rising pop star Alessia Cara's debut album Know-It-All also fared well in its first week, with a No. 9 debut and 36,000 units moved. A little bit of gospel courtesy of Kirk Franklin's Losing My Religion rounds at the top 10 with 35,000 units.
And what two albums stuck around in the top 10? Chris Stapleton's Traveller, which previously re-entered the charts at No. 1 for two weeks after his breakout evening at the 2015 CMA Awards, drops five spots to No. 6. The Weeknd's unstoppable new album Beauty Behind the Madness also sticks around in the top 10 at No. 8.
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