The Weeknd’s ‘After Hours’ Spends Second Week at No. 1 on Billboard 200 Chart

Plus: 5 Seconds of Summer, Dua Lipa, Pearl Jam, PartyNextDoor, and Joyner Lucas hit top 10.

The Weeknd’s After Hours leads a very busy top 10 on the latest Billboard 200 albums chart, as the set spends a second week atop the tally. The album earned 138,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending April 2 according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data. That’s down 69% as compared to the set’s first week, when it entered with 2020’s biggest week for an album: 444,000 units.

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). The new April 11-dated chart, where After Hours enters at No. 1, will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on April 7.

Of After Hours’ second-week units, 86,000 are in SEA units, 47,000 are in album sales and 4,000 are in TEA units.

After Hours’ second week was goosed by the addition of three new songs to the set on Monday (March 30), which helped drive streaming activity for the album. Further, the album continued to benefit from more than 90 merchandise/album bundles available on The Weeknd’s official website, as well as sales generated by a concert/ticket album sale redemption offer with his upcoming tour.

After Hours is also basking the glow of a second No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, as “Blinding Lights” reached the top of the most recently published chart (dated April 4). It became the second No. 1 from the album, following “Heartless” back in December.

On the all-format Radio Songs chart, which monitors the most heard songs across all formats of radio, “Blinding Lights” and “Heartless” ranked at Nos. 3 and 10 concurrently on the April 4-dated list.

5 Seconds of Summer scores its fifth top 10 album on the Billboard 200 chart as Calm surges from No. 62 to No. 2 with 133,000 equivalent album units earned (up 1,159%) in the week ending April 2. Of that sum, 113,000 are in album sales (up 970%), 19,000 are SEA units and 1,000 are TEA units. The set is also the best-selling album of the week, and is No. 1 on the Top Album Sales chart.

All five of 5 Seconds of Summer’s top 10 albums have also reached the top two. Calm is the quartet’s fourth full-length studio album.

Calm made an early arrival on the Billboard 200 chart dated April 4 at No. 62 with 11,000 in CD sales (in the tracking week ending March 26) from the band’s concert ticket/album bundle with its upcoming U.S. tour. The CDs were inadvertently fulfilled to customers prior to the album’s actual release date of March 27 due to a clerical error. Customers received the album as early as March 23. Longstanding Billboard policy is to reflect album sale activity in the tracking week that the paying customer receives the album.

Calm is the latest album to debut early on the Billboard 200 and then surge to the top 10 after its first proper tracking week of activity. A memorable recent example came when Rihanna’s Anti debuted at No. 27 in 2016 after two days of streaming activity at Tidal, and one day of sales at Tidal. It then vaulted to No. 1 the following week after its wide release to all digital retailers. Previous to Anti, such high-charting albums as Radiohead’s In Rainbows, The Notorious B.I.G.’s Life After Death and Destiny’s Child’s Destiny Fulfilled all debuted early due to street date violation sales at record stores (back when the Billboard 200 chart was based only on album sales) and then rushed to the top 10 in their second chart week.

Calm’s album sales in the tracking week ending April 2 were bolstered by dozens of merchandise/album bundles sold via the group’s official website, as well as its concert ticket/album sale redemption offer. (While 11,000 CDs from that offer were delivered in the tracking week ending March 26, the rest of the redemptions — and there was a sizable number — were fulfilled in the tracking week ending April 2.)

Calm was led by two charting singles on the Pop Songs airplay chart: “Easier” and “Teeth.” The former peaked at No. 12 last August, while the latter peaked at No. 21 in January. The album’s latest radio single, “Old Me,” is continuing to build momentum at top 40-formatted radio stations and could debut on the Pop Songs chart soon. “Easier” also reached No. 32 on the all-format Radio Songs chart.

All told, Calm is 5 Seconds of Summer’s sixth charting effort on the Billboard 200. The group visited the list with its three earlier full-length studio albums Youngblood (No. 1, 2018), Sounds Good Feels Good (No. 1, 2015) and its self-titled effort (No. 1, 2014). The act also hit the chart with a live project, LiveSOS (No. 13, 2015) and its introductory EP She Looks So Perfect (No. 2, 2014).

Continuing on the new Billboard 200, Lil Uzi Vert’s former No. 1 Eternal Atake falls one spot to No. 3, earning 84,000 equivalent album units (down 27%).

Dua Lipa lands her first top 10 album, as her second effort, Future Nostalgia, debuts at No. 4 with 66,000 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum, 44,000 are in SEA units, 18,000 are in album sales and 3,000 are in TEA units.

Future Nostalgia, released via Warner Records, easily beats the peak of the pop singer-songwriter’s self-titled debut effort, which topped out at No. 27 on the Feb. 17, 2018-dated chart.

The new album was led by the smash single “Don’t Start Now.” The track reached career-high peaks for the entertainer on both the Hot 100 (No. 2) and Radio Songs (No. 1 for three weeks, so far — it was No. 1 on the latest chart, dated April 4). The song also logged a sixth week at No. 1 on Pop Songs (as of the April 4 tally).

Dua Lipa’s first album yielded the high-charting single “New Rules,” which reached No. 6 on the Hot 100, No. 3 on Radio Songs, and No. 1 (for three weeks) on Pop Songs.

Notably, Future Nostalgia is the highest charting new pop album from Warner Records since December of 2018, when Michael Bublé’s Love (released via Reprise/Warner) debuted and peaked at No. 3. The last higher charting pop album from a woman on Warner was Cher’s Dancing Queen. The all-ABBA covers effort debuted and peaked at No. 3 on Oct. 13, 2018.

Since then, Warner has logged top four-charting efforts from rock acts Green Day (Father of All, No. 4; 2020, via Reprise/Warner) and The Black Keys (Let’s Rock, No. 4; 2019, Easy Eye Sound/Nonesuch/Warner), as well as Bublé’s vintage Christmas album (which was released in 2011 via 143/Reprise/Warner, but returned to the top four over both the 2018-19 and 2019-20 Christmas seasons). (Pop albums are those that did not chart on a genre-specific tally such as Alternative Albums or Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, etc.)

Pearl Jam returns to the Billboard 200 with its first studio album since 2013, as Gigaton jumps in at No. 5 with 63,000 equivalent album units earned. It’s the band’s 12th top 10 effort. Of the new album’s starting unit sum, 57,000 are in album sales, while 6,000 are in SEA units and less than 1,000 are in TEA units. The album performed particularly well on vinyl, selling 14,000 copies (the second-largest week on vinyl for a 2020 release).

Gigaton is Pearl Jam’s 11th studio album, and all 11 of those have reached the top five on the chart. Rounding out Pearl Jam’s 12 top 10 albums, the live compilation soundtrack album Pearl Jam Twenty debuted and peaked at No. 10 in 2011.

Lil Baby’s former No. 1 My Turn slips from No. 3 to No. 6 with 53,000 equivalent album units earned (down 12%) while Bad Bunny’s YHLQMDLG falls from No. 4 to No. 7 with 51,000 units (down less than 1%).

PartyNextDoor’s PartyMobile drives in at No. 8 with 50,000 equivalent album units earned. It’s the second top 10 effort for the act, who previously visited the region with PartyNextDoor 3 in 2016 (debuting and peaking at No. 3). The new album, released via OVO Sound/Warner, features a collaboration with Rihanna (“Believe It”), a track featuring OVO chief Drake (“Loyal”) and a remix of the latter tune boasting both Drake and Bad Bunny.

With both PartyMobile and Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia released via Warner Records, the label celebrates two concurrent albums in the top 10 for the first time in over a year, since the March 9, 2019-dated list, when Gary Clark Jr.’s This Land (Hotwire/Warner) and Lil Pump’s Harverd Dropout (Tha Lights Global/Warner) debuted at Nos. 6 and 7, respectively.

Back on the new Billboard 200, Roddy Ricch’s former No. 1 Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial descends 6-9 with 40,000 equivalent album units earned (down 6%).

Closing out the new top 10 is Joyner Lucas, who makes his chart debut with his first studio album, ADHD. The set starts with 39,000 equivalent album units earned, with 28,000 of that sum in SEA units, 10,000 in album sales and a little over 1,000 in TEA units. The album includes collaborations with Logic, Young Thug, Chris Brown, Timbaland, King OSF and Fabolous.

Source: billboard.com