Metallica surpasses Katy Perry in debut album sales

On Aug. 28, Metallica released their second live album collaboration with the San Francisco Symphony called S&M2. As well, Katy Perry debuted her sixth studio album Smile on the same day.

Last week, it was projected that Metallica’s new album may outsell Perry’s Smile, giving the metal band the top debut album spot this week. Now, Billboard has confirmed that S&M2 has outsold Smile.

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According to last week’s report, HITS Daily Double predicted that both S&M2 and Smile will sell between 50,000 – 60,000 digital copies. However, it was estimated that Metallica will beat out Perry in physical album sales by around 8,000 copies. These predictions meant that Metallica’s S&M2 will debut at No. 4 while Smile will come in at No. 5.

On Monday, Billboard released the official Billboard 200 chart figures which confirm that Metallica has outsold Perry. Billboard reports that S&M2 has debuted at No. 4 with 56,000 equivalent album units sold. Perry’s Smile fell behind at No. 5 with 50,000 equivalent album units sold. This means that Metallica has the highest-selling debut album this week.

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.”

Smile is Perry’s fifth album to reach the top 10. 2017’s Witness, 2013’s Prism and 2010’s Teenage Dream all reached No. 1. 2008’s One Of The Boys peaked at No. 9.

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Taylor Swift‘s surprise eighth studio album folklore continues to dominate the charts since its release back in July. folklore is still No.1 on the Billboard 200 for its sixth week. The No. 2 spot has gone to late rapper Pop Smoke‘s posthumous LP Shoot For The Stars Aim For The Moon.

Late rapper Juice WRLD‘s posthumous album Legends Never Die came in at No. 3 this week. Following its release back in July, Legends Never Die debuted at No.1.

Metallica’s S&M2 is available to stream below.

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