This thread is brought to you by the numbers 1, 5, 78K and 206K
Traditionally, the last full week before Christmas is the biggest sales week of the year. Each week, BB would report how many albums have been sold and give us a running total (with the percentage change from the previous year). They don’t do that anymore.
This year, the biggest selling album during the pre-Christmas week is The Sing Off’s Pentatonix’s “A Pentatonix Christmas”. The album has been out for 9 weeks and hasn’t left the top 6 since its debut. It is the biggest Holiday album of the year and their second album to hit top 1 (“Pentatonix” was their first). Not satisfied with having the number one Christmas album of the year, they also appear to have the second best selling one as well with “That’s Christmas to Me” at 5th.
There are no debuts in the top 10 this week, but Garth Brook’s “The Ultimate Collection” makes its first appearance. Technically, it has sold enough to be in the top 10 before, but its price per CD was too low for it to qualify. After 4 weeks, the price-per-CD rule no longer applies. This is a 10 CD collection.
1 (2) Pentatonix “A Pentatonix Christmas” 206K (+32%), 185K sales
2 (4) Bruno Mars “24K Magic” 114K (+54%)
3 (3) The Weeknd “Starboy” 101K (-7%)
4 (1) J. Cole “4 Your Eyez Only” 90K (-82%)
5 (5) Pentatonix “That’s Christmas to Me” 78K (+20%)
6 (13) Garth Brooks “The Ultimate Collection” 64K (+75%)
7 (7) “Hamilton” Broadway Cast 58K (+21%)
8 (11) Metallica “Hardwired to Self-Destruct” 53K (+30%)
9 (10) The Rolling Stones “Blue & Lonesome” 52K (+21%)
10 (8) “Moana” Soundtrack 51K (+7%)
Streams of George Michael’s songs are up 3000% on Spotify. His singles have also re-appeared in the top 100 of iTunes, but the gift card redeeming teens have fuelled their favourites to the top. Shawn Mendes leads the charge, but X-Factor’s Niall Horan is currently in second.
