Lady Gaga Lands Second Chart-Topping Album With ‘ARTPOP’

Robbie Daw | November 20, 2013 8:55 am

The numbers are in with regards to Lady Gaga‘s third album ARTPOP — two sets of them, actually, which should have Monsters either up in arms or at least scratching their heads. According to Billboard, the record sold 258,000 copies in its first week. Hits Daily Double, however, notes the slightly higher tally of 259,683 copies. Whatever the case is (and, really, the difference is slight), the album moved just under Billboard‘s projection of 260,000 from last week, and Gaga now has her second chart-topping LP on the Billboard 200.

There is, of course, the matter of the “Do What U Want” singer’s previous album Born This Way selling far more copies out of the gate back in 2011 — 1.1. million to be exact. At that time, the Amazon’s MP3 store offered up Born This Way for 99 cents, which caused a huge uproar and much foul-crying in some circles. But even when you subtract the entire first week’s worth of Born This Way‘s sales at that particular digital retailer (440,000), the album still sold 668,000 copies — more than double the first week sales of ARTPOP.

Born This Way benefited from its lead single, the album’s title track, debuting at #1 on the Hot 100 and staying there for six weeks in early 2011. (There was also fanfare around the fact that “Born This Way” became the 1000th song to top the Hot 100.) On the flip side, while Gaga’s lead ARTPOP single “Applause” has been hanging around in the Top 10 of the Hot 100 for 13 weeks, the highest position it reached was #4, as other songs like Katy Perry‘s “Roar” and Miley Cyrus“Wrecking Ball” stole its thunder on the chart.

In turn, Gaga’s ARTPOP is now the third-highest debut for a female artist on the album chart in 2013, behind Perry’s Prism (286,000) and Cyrus’ Bangerz (270,000). Last week’s #1 album, Eminem‘s The Marshall Mathers LP 2 (210,000), is now bumped down to the runner-up spot.

Final note: Before wagging a finger and blaming the fact that physical copies of ARTPOP were sold at the non-traditional, non-SoundScan outlet of H&M, Billboard points out that sales from the clothing chain were reported this time around, and they accounted for less than 1000 copies of the album’s final first-week number.

The Top 10 Of The Billboard 200 Chart

1. Lady Gaga, ARTPOP *new* *1 week*
2. Eminem, The Marshall Mathers LP 2
3. Various, Now 48 *new*
4. The Robertsons, Duck The Halls: A Robertson Family Christmas
5. Katy Perry, Prism
6. Kelly Clarkson, Wrapped In Red
7. The Beatles, On Air: Live At The BBC Volume 2 *new*
8. Jhene Aiko, Sail Out *new*
9. Drake, Nothing Was The Same
10. Lorde, Pure Heroine

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