One week after a surge of new releases and the Billboard 200 has gotten back to the same ol' as Taylor Swift and 1989 reclaim the top spot on the charts. The album moved 101,000 equivalent albums as it earned its tenth week atop the Billboard 200 and the first time in three weeks. This makes Swift openly the second woman ever to have two separate albums that have spent at least 10 weeks at no. 1, with Whitney Houston being the other.
The folks over at Billboard must have goofed as they forgot to include what album came in at no. 2 on this week's charts. Based on comparisons with week's past, we have to imagine that Ed Sheeran and x crept back up to no. 2. The record's been steady within the Top 10 thanks to high streaming and downloads so we can't imagine it dropped from no. 4 out of the Top 10 this week.
We can say for sure that Meghan Trainor and Title kept the no. 3 spot, moving 68,000 equivalent albums (Sheeran, scored 76,000 last week and similar numbers would put him ahead of the "All About That Bass" starlet). Sam Smith had an actual increase in sales (rare on this week's charts) as In The Lonely Hour moved 60,000 units and took no. 4. He stood on the brink of elimination at no. 9 last week.
The only debut to come in the Top 10 this week was Ne-Yo, who moved 59,000 copies of his set Non-Fiction, most of them actual album sales.
Last week's no. 1, American Beauty/American Psycho by Fall Out Boy, fell to no. 6 with 55,000 equivalent copies moved. The lack of new albums helped Mark Ronson and Uptown Special, which has the added benefit of "Uptown Funk" streams and downloads on its side, jump up from no. 10 to no. 7 this week with 49,000 equivalent units (the other actual rise in sales this week, aside from Smith).
Nicki Minaj spent her seventh straight week in the Top 10 with The Pinkprint, albeit slipping to no. 8 with 48,000 equivalent albums moved. Maroon 5 came back into the Top 10 with V, mostly thanks to sales success of the single "Sugar." The 2015 Grammy Nominees album makes its first appearance in the Billboard Top 10 thanks to 34,000 in equivalent sales.
