Tom MacDonald and Adam Calhoun’s The Brave bows at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated March 19), selling 16,000 copies in the U.S. in the week ending March 10, according to MRC Data. The self-released set is the first collaborative effort from the pair, and marks the first entry on the list for MacDonald. It’s the 10th charting album for Calhoun, and his first top 10.
Elsewhere in the top 10 of Top Album Sales, Dolly Parton’s new Run, Rose, Run starts at No. 2, One Direction’s former No. 1 Four re-enters at No. 3 after a new vinyl release, Sabaton’s The War to End All Wars opens at No. 5 and Band of Horses’ Things Are Great enters at No. 7.
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 sole measurement 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. The new March 19-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on March 15. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
Digital album sales comprise the entirety of The Brave’s 16,000 copies sold in the week ending March 10.
MacDonald has charted three entries on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, all in 2021: “Fake Woke” (peaking at No. 96 last February), “Snowflakes” (No. 71, June) and “Brainwashed” (No. 89, August). Each spent one week on the tally. None of them are on the new album. He’s also notched 19 titles on the Digital Song Sales chart, through the most recently published list (dated March 12). Of those, nine reached the top 10, with “Fake Woke” hitting No. 1. (Calhoun has yet to reach the Hot 100, but has notched two entries on Digital Song Sales, both with MacDonald.)
Tom MacDonald & Adam Calhoun ‘The Brave.’
Dolly Parton lands her highest charting album yet on the 30-year-old Top Album Sales chart, as Run, Rose, Run debuts at No. 2. The set starts with 15,500 sold – Parton’s largest sales week for a non-holiday album since 2016’s Pure & Simple launched with 20,000. Run Rose Run is a companion album to Parton’s book of the same name, co-written with James Patterson.
Of Run, Rose, Run’s 15,500 copies sold, physical sales comprise 11,500 (9,700 on CD and 1,800 on vinyl) and digital sales comprise 4,000.
One Direction’s former No. 1 Four returns to Top Album Sales, re-entering at No. 3 after a new red vinyl pressing was released exclusively via Urban Outfitters. In total in the week ending March 10, Four sold 9,000 copies (up 3,535%) – nearly all from vinyl sales.
Four also re-enters the Vinyl Albums chart at No. 1, its first week atop the tally (it previously peaked at No. 15 in 2015; it was released in November 2014). It’s the second leader on the Vinyl Albums chart for One Direction, following Made in the A.M. in 2015.
The chart-topping Encanto soundtrack rises 5-4 on Top Album Sales with just over 8,000 sold (though down 14%).
Rock band Sabaton logs its second top 10 on Top Album Sales, as The War to End All Wars debuts at No. 5 with 8,000 sold. The group previously hit the top 10 with the No. 5-peaking The Great War in 2019.
Tears for Fears’ The Tipping Point falls 1-6 in its second week on Top Album Sales, with a little under 8,000 sold (down 73%).
Band of Horses’ Things Are Great bows at No. 7 on Top Album Sales with 7,000 sold – the act’s third top 10. It’s the group’s first release since 2016’s Why Are You OK, which debuted and peaked at No. 10.
Olivia Rodrigo’s former No. 1 Sour falls 7-8 on Top Album Sales with 7,000 sold (down 5%), Adele’s chart-topping 30 dips 6-9 with nearly 7,000 (down 14%) and Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours descends 9-10 with 5,500 (down 7%).
In the week ending March 10, there were 1.765 million albums sold in the U.S. (up 2.2% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 1.333 million (up 0.1%) and digital albums comprised 431,000 (up 9.3%).
There were 632,000 CD albums sold in the week ending March 10 (up 1.9% week-over-week) and 692,000 vinyl albums sold (down 1.4%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 6.112 million (down 8.5% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 7.017 million (down 1.1%).
Overall year-to-date album sales total 17.299 million (down 7.5% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 13.216 million (down 4.6%) and digital album sales total 4.083 million (down 15.7%).