Nicki Minaj’s ‘Roman Reloaded’ Debuts At #1, Madonna’s ‘MDNA’ Suffers Huge Drop

Robbie Daw | April 11, 2012 9:57 am

Nicki Minaj‘s Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded has become her second chart-topping album after posting better-than-expected first-week sales of 253,000 copies. Unfortunately for , her “Give Me All Your Luvin'” pal bumps MDNA off the #1 spot on Billboard‘s Top 200. And as noted yesterday, Madge’s drop is a record-breaking, steep one — 86.7% to be exact. MDNA fell from sales of 359,000 out of the gate to 48,000 in its second week, which has now caused the album to plummet down to #8 on the chart. Madonna’s opening-week sales were aided by the fact that concert-goers who purchased tickets to her fall North American tour were given the option of receiving either a physical CD or digital download copy of MDNA. Those who opted for the album therefore contributed to the initial 359,000 total copies sold. But without a hit single dominating the airwaves, it was naturally impossible to maintain the momentum by week number two.

Billboard points out that Madonna has now topped Lady Gaga for the biggest second-week drop in sales of an album in the SoundScan era. Last spring, Gaga’s Born This Way fell 84.27% from its first week (when it sold 1.1 million copies) to second (174,000). That album’s sales were, of course, aided by the Amazon MP3 Store’s now-infamous 99-cent sale.

It is worth mentioning that Madonna, who is currently rehearsing for her tour, has done nearly zero promotion for MDNA, save for a live chat with Jimmy Fallon for Facebook and a couple Twitter fan Q&A sessions.

The Top 10 Of Billboard’s Top 200 Chart

1. Nicki Minaj, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded *new* *1 week* 2. Adele, 21 3. Rascal Flatts, Changed *new* 4. Lionel Richie, Tuskegee 5. One Direction, Up All Night 6. Of Monsters And Men, My Head Is An Animal *new* 7. Various, The Hunger Games soundtrack 8. Madonna, MDNA 9. Marvin Sapp, I Win *new* 10. Shinedown, Amaryllis