Ed Sheeran’s X got off to a strong start in his native U.K. and is doing the same in the U.S. His second album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart.
X started its chart run with 210,000 copies sold in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan numbers provided to Billboard. It is the third-best start of the year, coming in behind new releases from Brantley Gilbert, Eric Church and the band with the best debut of 2014, Coldplay.
This is also easily Sheeran’s best sales week. His first album, +, started at No. 5 with just 42,000 copies in its debut week. That album has sold 841,000 copies so far.
Sheeran scored the biggest debut of the year in the U.K., with X selling 182,000 copies in its first week there.
Back in the U.S., another U.K. act is at No. 2. Sam Smith’s In The Lonely Hour sold another 67,000 copies this past week. G-Eazy’s new release These Things Happen sold 46,000 copies and topped the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, Rap Albums and Independent Albums charts.
Lana Del Rey’s Ultraviolence, which topped the chart last week, slid all the way to No. 4 with just 44,000 copies. Frozen also notched a 28th week in a row in the Top 5 with 38,000 copies sold.
The rest of the Top 10 features Mastodon’s Once More ‘Round The Sun (34,000 copies); Phish’s Fuego (32,000); Miranda Lambert’s Platinum (29,000); Linkin Park’s The Hunting Party (29,000); and How 50 (22,000).
Smith topped the Digital Songs chart with “Stay With Me,” which was downloaded 211,000 times last week.
image courtesy of INFphoto.com