Kids See Ghosts & Dierks Bentley Debut in Top 3 on Billboard 200 Albums Chart
6/18/2018 by Keith Caulfield
Kid Cudi and Kanye West attend the Michael Bastian presentation during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Fall 2009 at 637 West 27th Street on Feb. 16, 2009 in New York City.
As previously reported, Dave Matthews Band swoops in at No. 1 on the new Billboard 200 albums chart with the group’s seventh leader, Come Tomorrow. The set earned 292,000 equivalent album units in the week ending June 14, according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum, 285,000 were in traditional album sales -- the biggest sales week for an album in 2018.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption, which includes traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). The new June 23-dated chart (where Dave Matthews Band debuts at No. 1) will be posted in full on Billboard's websites on Tuesday, June 19.
At No. 2 on the new Billboard 200, Kids See Ghosts’ self-titled album debuts with 142,000 units, with 79,000 of that sum in traditional album sales. Kids See Ghosts is the duo project from Kanye West and Kid Cudi. The set is the second of a string of weekly releases from West’s G.O.O.D. Music label, following his own chart-topping ye, which falls to No. 5 in its second week (74,000 units; down 65 percent).
Country star Dierks Bentley bows at No. 3 with The Mountain (102,000 units; 94,000 in traditional album sales), marking Bentley’s ninth top 10 and his best sales week ever. His previous biggest sales frame was scored with the debut week of his last studio set, Black, in 2016, when it began with 88,000 sold.
The Mountain also logs the third-biggest overall week, in units, for a country album in 2018. The only larger overall frames scored by country sets this year have been the starting weeks of Jason Aldean’s Rearview Town (183,000 units) and Keith Urban’s Graffiti U (145,000 units). All three sets were enhanced by sales generated by a concert ticket/album sale redemption program.
Post Malone’s beerbongs & bentleys dips 2-4 with 92,000 units (down 7 percent).
Below West's ye at No. 5, Cardi B’s Invasion of Privacy slips 5-6 with 46,000 units (down 6 percent), Juice WRLD’s Goodbye & Good Riddance shifts 6-7 with 43,000 units (up 3 percent), and The Greatest Showman soundtrack moves 7-8 with 38,000 units (down 10 percent).
Lil Baby’s Harder Than Ever is steady at No. 9 with 34,000 units (down 8 percent), while Shawn Mendes’ self-titled album falls 8-10 with 31,000 units (down 21 percent).