Lady Gaga and Katy Perry are cool with each other, as evidenced by the former's friendly tweet shout out regarding album leaks. However, now that Gaga was forced to move her single "Applause" up to release on Tuesday, versus Perry's new "Roar" single, you can bet there will be some competition. The analysts at Billboard think that it may mark a new high for multiple debut downloads.
If "Applause" and "Roar" both generate at least 400,000 downloads, it will be the first time in history that two debut singles top 400k. In fact, it will be the first time in more than a year that any two songs managed to break the mark. During the week of May 5, 2012, both Maroon 5's "Payphone" and Gotye's "Somebody That I Used To Know" broke the barrier.
Gaga's last album debut single, "Born This Way," sold 448,000 in just three days, half the time that "Applause" has before the sales are tallied. Perry "only" got 294,000 downloads during the first week of sales for her 2010 single "California Gurls." Her single "Firework" broke 500,000 during its 2010 debut however.
Going for the record for most downloads in one week isn't out of the question however. Both artists have made it to the top-10, for "Born This Way" and "Firework" respectively. Flo Rida currently holds the no. 1 spot of all time, with 636,000 for "Right Round" in 2009.
Regardless of sales, neither track should expect to place very high on the Billboard Hot 100...yet. Although sales numbers are tracked through the weekend, radio play is registered through Tuesday, meaning that "Applause" had only two days to rack up spins, and is therefore unlikely to break into the Hot 100. "Roar" has had enough time that it could potentially get into the bottom half of the list.
