Eminem handily brushed aside a crowded field to claim the Number One spot on the Rolling Stone Top 200 Albums chart with his new LP, Music to Be Murdered By.
In its debut week, the surprise-release moved 281,600 album-equivalent units, thanks to both a hefty amount of streams (183.4 million) and a strong showing in actual album sales (117,000). The rapper placed three songs from the album in the Top 10 of the Top 100 Songs chart, with “Godzilla” reaching Number Three with 289,300 song units, “Darkness” hitting Number Eight with 127,000 song units and “Those Kinda Nights” landing at 10 with 124,100 song units.
Eminem’s big week was more than enough to beat other top contenders, Halsey and Mac Miller, who came in at Numbers Two and Three, respectively. Halsey’s new album, Manic, moved 240,600 album units on the back of 62.7 million song streams and 183,600 album sales. Meanwhile Miller’s first posthumous album, Circles, moved 167,800 album units thanks to 125.4 million streams and 62,700 album sales. Miller’s “Good News” also reached Number Four on the Top 100 with 162,600 song units, while another album cut, “Blue World,” landed at Nine with 124,900 song units.
The Rolling Stone 200 Albums chart tracks the most popular releases of the week in the United States. Entries are ranked by album units, a number that combines digital and physical album sales, digital song sales, and audio streams using a custom weighting system. The chart does not include passive listening such as terrestrial radio or digital radio. The Rolling Stone 200 Albums chart is updated daily, and each week Rolling Stone finalizes and publishes an official version of the chart, covering the seven-day period ending with the previous Thursday.
As a result of this week’s big three debuts, last week’s Number One, Selena Gomez’s Rare, fell all the way to Number Seven with 38,400 album units thanks primarily to 35.6 million streams. Roddy Ricch’s Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial had another strong week, landing at Number Four with 107,200 album units, while Post Malone’s Hollywood’s Bleeding held tight at Number Five with 51,900 album units and Moneybagg Yo’s Time Served landed at Number Six with 38,800 album units. DaBaby’s Kirk, Billie Eilish’s When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? and Harry Styles’ Fine Line rounded out the rest of the Top 10 in that order, though expect Eilish to rise next week in the wake of her Grammys sweep.
Elsewhere, Little Big Town nearly cracked the Top 10 with their new album Nightfall, which debuted at Number 11 with 31,500 album-equivalent units (though the country group amassed just 4.3 million streams, Nightfall sold 26,600 copies). Rising electronic artist Chelsea Cutler had the only other Top 25 debut, with her new album, How to Be Human, bowing at Number 23 as it moved 19,500 album units thanks to 7.6 million streams and 13,300 sales.