K-pop stars Stray Kids and Jimin lead Billboard 200, dropping Eminem to #3
For the first time in Billboard 200 history, the top two albums of the week were both K-pop releases. For the tracking week that ended July 25, Stray Kids debuted at number-one with “Ate” achieving 232,000 equivalent album units based on its combined traditional album sales, individual track sales and online streams. They’re the first group ever to top the chart with their first five albums. Next up was former BTS member Jimin with 96,000 units for his collection “Muse.” Read more about this week’s chart here at Billboard.com.
Familiar faces accounted for the rest of this week’s top five. Eminem‘s “The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grace)” fell from number-one to number-three with 79,000 units, a week-to-week drop of 72%. In fourth place, Taylor Swift‘s “The Tortured Poets Department” had a more modest drop of nine-percent to 74,000 units. And Zach Bryan‘s “The Great American Bar Scene” slipped 19% to 71,000 units.
In our weekly Billboard 200 predictions contest, most game players correctly predicted that “Ate” would be the top album. But we underestimated just how dominant it would be; most of us thought it would move between 150,000 and 199,999 album units. We also didn’t anticipate the one-two finish for K-pop as only eight of us anticipated “Muse” in second position.
Our consensus was right, though, that “The Death of Slim Shady” would take number-three. Finally, fourth and fifth place took most of us by surprise: only a dozen anticipated “Tortured Poets” repeating at number-four and a baker’s dozen had “Great American Bar Scene” at number-five. But three Gold Derby users managed to answer all six prediction questions correctly. How did you do? Find out here.
Be sure to make your predictions so that artists can see how they’re faring in our racetrack odds. You can keep changing your predictions until just before the next tracking week begins every Friday. You’ll compete to win a spot on our leaderboard and eternal bragging rights. See our contest rules and sound off with other fans in our music forum. Read more Gold Derby entertainment news.