Metallica locked down a #2 debut on the Billboard 200 with their eleventh studio album, “72 Seasons“. The thrash metal legends released that opus on April 14th. According to Billboard, “72 Seasons” notched up 146,000 units amid its first week.
134,000 of those units were comprised of album sales, with streaming equivalent albums accounting for 11,500 (15.91 million on-demand streams of the album’s tracks) and track equivalent albums consisting of 200 of the total sum.
That number marked the largest first week sales debut for any rock/hard rock band since Tool released their long-awaited comeback “Fear Inoculum” back in 2019. That record managed to move some 248,000 units during its first week. “72 Seasons” marks the first official Metallica album to not have debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 since their 16x multi-platinum 1991 self-titled effort.
If you’re curious, country star Morgan Wallen managed to best the band at the top of the charts, having shifted 166,000 album equivalent units during its seventh consequtive week atop the charts.
