Taylor Swift’s reign at the top of the Billboard 200 album chart is over, at least for the moment. This past week, One Direction’s new album, appropriately titled Four, knocked 1989 out of the top.
Four scored the second-best debut of the year, with 387,000 copies sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan data for Billboard. That’s actually than what analysts predicted and falls short of the mark set by their previous album, Midnight Memories. That release started with 546,000 copies sold.
The album does have the distinction of being the last No. 1 album on a chart based just on album sales. Last week, Billboard announced that its main album chart will now also use on-demand streaming and digital track sales to help calculate chart positions. Still, Billboard will have an individual chart called Top Album Sales that will only be based on album sales.
Swift’s 1989 dropped to No. 2 after three weeks at No. 1. During the week ending on Nov. 23, the album solds 214,000 copies. It is up to 2.21 million copies. 1989 does have a chance at becoming the top-selling album of 2014, but it has to catch up with the Frozen soundtrack, which has sold 3.27 million copies this year.
A cappella group Pentatonix’s That’s Christmas To Me jumped to No. 3 with 99,000 copies sold. That’s the biggest sales week of the group’s career.
Nickelback is back on the charts with No Fixed address, which started at No. 4. The album sold 80,000 copies and is their sixth top 10 release.
Garth Brooks rounded out the top 5 with Man Against Machine, which dropped to No. 5 after starting at No. 4 last week. The album sold 62,000 copies during the week.
The rest of the Top 10 features: Pink Floyd’s The Endless River (45,000 copies); Sonic Highways from Foo Fighters (36,000); In This Moment’s Black Widow (36,000); Michael Buble’s 2011 Christmas album (35,000); and Idina Menzel’s Holiday Wishes (33,000).
Over at the Digital Sales chart, Swift is still at No. 1 with “Blank Space,” which sold 302,000 downloads. Hozier’s “Take Me To Church” added 176,000 downloads.
image courtesy of Jennifer Graylock/INFphoto.com