Linkin Park posts the first No. 1 debut in the 14-month history of the Rock Songs chart, as “The Catalyst” launches with 12.2 million audience impressions.
The cut eclipses the chart’s previous highest-starting song, Pearl Jam’s “The Fixer,” which arrived at No. 2 a year ago this month.
Rock Songs premiered the week of June 20, 2009. The Nielsen BDS-based radio airplay survey measures the most-heard titles on more than 180 alternative, adult alternative and mainstream rock stations.
“The Catalyst” concurrently opens on the Alternative Songs chart at No. 3, marking the list’s loftiest arrival since Linkin Park’s own “What I’ve Done” bowed at No. 1 in April 2007.
“The Catalyst” is the first single from the band’s fourth studio album, “A Thousand Suns,” due Sept. 14.
Linkin Park to Release ‘A Thousand Suns’ in September
The song, a portion of which accompanied the trailer for the video game “Medal of Honor,” is already the most-played track at seven Rock Songs reporting stations, including alternative KROQ/Los Angeles, which spun the song 40 times in its first week of availability. The total is second only to the 45 out-of-the-box plays that WPBZ (Buzz 103.1)/West Palm Beach, Fla., gave the song in the chart’s Aug. 2-8 tracking week.
Linkin Park’s last studio album, “Minutes to Midnight,” debuted atop the Billboard 200 in June 2007 and has sold 3 million copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Linkin Park has sold 21.7 million albums in its career. The band ranks as the 53rd-best-selling album act since SoundScan began tracking sales data in 1991.