Jay-Z & Kanye West’s ‘Watch The Throne’ Controls The Chart

Robbie Daw | August 17, 2011 8:06 am

Adele’s sophomore LP 21 gets bumped in more ways than one this week on the Billboard Top 200. Jay-Z and Kanye West’s Watch The Throne not only knocks the London singer off the top of the chart, it also posts the second-best sales week for a #1 album this year — a title previously held by 21. (Lady Gaga’s Born This Way is still the biggest one-week cash cow of 2011, having sold over 1.1 million copies upon its May release.) Billboard reports that Watch The Throne sold 436,000 copies in its first week, 321,000 of which were digital copies. (The album was available on iTunes for four days before last Friday’s physical CD release. Billboard‘s sales data cut-off for figuring the charts is every Sunday evening.)

Watch The Throne, which contains jams like the Otis Redding tribute “Otis” and Beyonce collaboration “Lift Off,” has now also posted the second-best digital sales week ever, behind Gaga’s Born This Way (which sold 662,000 in MP3 format in its first week).

Though it’s not confirmed, sources told Billboard that Jay and Kanye’s album also broke Coldplay’s one-week iTunes sales record, with 290,000 sold through Apple’s digital store. (Coldplay’s most recent album, Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends sold 282,000 through iTunes during its summer 2008 opening week.)

The Top 10 Of Billboard‘s Top 200 Chart:

1. Jay-Z & Kanye West (The Throne), Watch The Throne *new* 2. Luke Bryan, Tailgates & Tanlines *new* 3. Various, NOW 39 *new* 4.Adele, 21 5. Eric Church, Chief 6.Jason Aldean, My Kinda Party 7. Beyonce,4 8. Ace Hood,Blood, Sweat + Tears *new* 9. Jackie Evancho, Dream With Me 10. Kidz Bop Kidz, Kidz Bop 20

Have you bought a copy of Watch The Throne yet? Let us know your thoughts on the album below!