Justin Bieber officially has the No. 1 album in the country.
USA Today reports that his album, Believe, has topped the Billboard 200 charts after selling 374,000 copies during its first week.
That number makes Bieber’s album the biggest first week sales of 2012. That title previously belonged to Madonna’s MDNA, which sold 359,000 copies earlier this year. Bieber’s first week total is the biggest debut since Drake’s Take Care sold 631,000 copies last December.
While Believe holds the highest debut sales week of 2012, it still could not surpass this year’s biggest overall sales week. Adele’s blockbuster album, 21, has 2012’s biggest sales week, selling 730,000 copies the week after her multiple Grammy wins.
According to Billboard, this marks the biggest sales week thus far in Bieber’s career, beating the 291,000 copies that My World 2.0 sold last April.
Although Believe marks the biggest debut week sales for 2012, the number of albums shifted came in below expectations. Last week, the album was estimated to sell between 410,000 to 440,000 based on first day sales and pre-orders.
Believe marks the singer’s fourth No. 1 album. His previous No. 1 albums include My World 2.0, Never Say Never: The Remixes, and Under the Mistletoe. Only two of his albums, My World and My Worlds Acoustic, failed to reach the top spot, coming in at No. 5 and No. 7, respectively.
Source
