Foster the People score their third top 10-charting set on Billboard’s Top Album Sales ranking as the act’s latest studio effort, Paradise State of Mind, debuts at No. 8.
The set sold nearly 7,000 copies in the U.S. in the week ending Aug. 22, according to Luminate. The new album was preceded by the top 20-charting Alternative Airplay hit “Lost In Space.”
Also new in the top 10 on Top Album Sales: Post Malone’s F-1 Trillion drives in at No. 1, Falling in Reverse scores its highest charting album and first top 10 with Popular Monster arriving at No. 2, KATSEYE’s debut project SIS (Soft Is Strong) bows at No. 6 and virtual YouTuber Mori Calliope visits the top 10 for the first time with Phantomime debuting at No. 9.
Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units.
Of the 7,000 copies sold by Paradise State of Mind in its first week, physical album sales comprise 6,000 (about 3,000 each for CD and vinyl) and download album sales comprise 1,000. The set was supported by its availability across six vinyl editions.
Post Malone’s first country album F-1 Trillion starts at No. 1 on Top Album Sales with 80,000 sold in its first week – the second-largest sales week for a country album in 2023. (Only Beyoncé’s own debut country set, Cowboy Carter, roped a bigger week, when it arrived with 168,000 earlier this year.)
F-1 Trillion’s first-week sales were bolstered by its availability across four vinyl editions (a standard black vinyl and three color variants; which combined to sell 25,000 – Post Malone’s best week on vinyl), a cassette and a CD, in addition to explicit and clean digital download albums for the standard 18-song version and the 27-song “Long Bed” version.
Rock band Falling In Reverse debuts at No. 2 with Popular Monster, scoring the rock act its highest-charting effort and first top 10. The album sold nearly 18,000 copies in its first week – the act’s best sales week since 2015’s Just Like You debuted with 24,000 sold. The new set’s first-week sales were aided by its availability across eight vinyl variants, a signed CD, and a deluxe CD boxed set containing a branded T-shirt.
Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess is a non-mover at No. 3 with 15,000 sold (up 5%), Stray Kids’ chart-topping ATE falls 2-4 with 14,000 (down 25%) and ENHYPEN’s former leader Romance: Untold dips 4-5 with 10,000 (down 3%).
SIS (Soft Is Strong), the debut project from girl group KATSEYE, arrives at No. 6 with 8,000 sold. The act was formed on the 2023 YouTube series The Debut: Dream Academy. SIS’ first-week sales were bolstered by eight collectible CD variants and two vinyl albums.
Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft falls 5-7 with nearly 8,000 sold (down 18%).
Mori Calliope, a virtual YouTuber with more than 2 million subscribers on that platform, debuts at No. 9 with Phantomime, selling 6,000 copies. It’s the artist’s first top 10 on the tally, and the set was supported by its availability across five collectible CD variants.
Falling from No. 1 to No. 10 is Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department with nearly 6,000 sold (down 79%).
