{"id":4568,"date":"2025-05-05T02:03:02","date_gmt":"2025-05-05T02:03:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musicnow.iprorecords.com\/?p=4568"},"modified":"2025-05-05T02:03:03","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T02:03:03","slug":"ghost-earns-first-no-1-album-on-billboard-200-with-skeleta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicnow.iprorecords.com\/?p=4568","title":{"rendered":"Ghost Earns First No. 1 Album on Billboard 200 with\u00a0\u2018Skelet\u00e1\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<script>\r\nif( document.getElementById( \"builder-styles-css\" ) ) document.getElementById( \"builder-styles-css\" ).insertAdjacentHTML( \"beforebegin\", \"<link rel='stylesheet' href='https:\/\/musicnow.iprorecords.com\/wp-content\/themes\/themify-music\/themify\/themify-builder\/css\/themify-builder-style.css' type='text\/css' \/>\" );\r\n<\/script>\r\n\t\t\t\n<p>It&#8217;s the first hard rock album to be No. 1 in more than four years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Skelet\u00e1&nbsp;<\/em>marks the ninth charted effort for the group on the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/t\/billboard\/\">Billboard<\/a>&nbsp;200. The band first visited the list in 2013 with its second album,&nbsp;<em>Infestissumam<\/em>, which also marked the act\u2019s first top 40-charting set, reaching No. 28.&nbsp;<em>Skelet\u00e1&nbsp;<\/em>scores Ghost its eighth top 40 set, and fifth to reach the top 10. The band had previously gone as high as No. 2 with its last full-length studio album, 2022\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Impera<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/t\/billboard-200\/\">Billboard 200<\/a>&nbsp;chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid\/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new May 10, 2025-dated chart will be posted in full on&nbsp;<em>Billboard<\/em>\u2018s website on May 6. For all chart&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/t\/news\/\">news<\/a>, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of&nbsp;<em>Skelet\u00e1\u2019<\/em>s 86,000 first-week equivalent album units, album sales comprise 77,000 (it debuts at No. 1 on Top Album Sales), SEA units comprise 9,000 (equaling 12.45 million on-demand official streams of the set\u2019s songs) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum. The set\u2019s first-week sales were bolstered by its availability across more than 15 vinyl variants, three CD variants and four cassette variants (all containing the same tracklist, but in collectible packaging).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With&nbsp;<em>Skelet\u00e1&nbsp;<\/em>scoring 9,000 in SEA units (12.45 million on-demand official streams of the album\u2019s songs), the group logs its biggest streaming week ever for an album. It surpasses the opening-week of<em>&nbsp;Impera&nbsp;<\/em>(7,000 SEA; 9.11 million streams for its songs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The new album was led by the radio-promoted single \u201cSatanized,\u201d which became the act\u2019s 10th top 10-charting hit on the Mainstream Rock Airplay chart in April. It\u2019s one of a trio of hits that the album yielded on the Hot Hard Rock Songs chart prior to the album\u2019s release. \u201cSatanized\u201d hit No. 3 (March 22 chart), followed by \u201cLachryma\u201d (No. 3, April 26) and \u201cPeacefield\u201d (No. 13, May 3). (<em>Skelet\u00e1<\/em>&nbsp;is also the first full-length project from the band since the act garnered its first hit on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, when its viral hit \u201cMary on a Cross\u201d reached No. 90 on the tally in 2022.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With the No. 1 arrival on the Billboard 200,&nbsp;<em>Skelet\u00e1&nbsp;<\/em>lands a number of milestone achievements for Ghost. Here\u2019s a recap:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Skelet\u00e1&nbsp;<\/em>yields Ghost\u2019s best week ever by both equivalent album units and traditional album sales. The act\u2019s previous high in both metrics came in the debut week of&nbsp;<em>Impera<\/em>&nbsp;(March 26, 2022), which earned 70,000 units (of which nearly 63,000 were album sales). As noted earlier,&nbsp;<em>Skelet\u00e1&nbsp;<\/em>also garners the largest streaming week for a Ghost album.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ghost lands the biggest week of 2025, by either equivalent album units or traditional album sales, for any rock, hard rock or alternative album.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of&nbsp;<em>Skelet\u00e1\u2019s&nbsp;<\/em>first-week album sales, vinyl purchases comprised just over 44,000 copies. That\u2019s not just the largest sales week on vinyl for Ghost, but the biggest week for a hard rock album on vinyl in the modern era (since Luminate began tracking data in 1991). It\u2019s also the third-largest sales week on vinyl in the modern era for any rock album, trailing only the opening weeks of blink-182\u2019s&nbsp;<em>One More Time\u2026<\/em>&nbsp;(49,000; 2023) and boygenius\u2019&nbsp;<em>The Record<\/em>&nbsp;(45,000; 2023).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Skelet\u00e1<\/em>&nbsp;is the first hard rock album to lead the Billboard 200 in over four years, and the only rock, hard rock or alternative album to be No. 1 in 2025. The last hard rock album at No. 1 was AC\/DC\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Power Up<\/em>, which premiered at No. 1 on the Nov. 28, 2020, chart and spent one week at No. 1. The last rock, or alternative, album to lead the tally was Coldplay\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Moon&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/t\/music\/\">Music<\/a><\/em>, when it debuted at No. 1 on the Oct. 19, 2024, chart (spending one week at No. 1).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rock, alternative and hard rock albums are defined as those that are eligible for, or have charted on,&nbsp;<em>Billboard<\/em>\u2019s Top Rock Albums, Top Alternative Albums and Top Hard Rock Albums charts, respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Not only is&nbsp;<em>Skelet\u00e1&nbsp;<\/em>the group\u2019s first No. 1, but it\u2019s the first chart-topper for its label Loma Vista Recordings and the first leader for Concord Label Group in nearly a decade \u2014 since James Taylor\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Before This World<\/em>&nbsp;(on Concord Records) debuted at No. 1 on the July 4, 2015-dated chart. Loma Vista had previously gone as high as No. 2 with Ghost\u2019s last full-length studio album,&nbsp;<em>Impera<\/em>, in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Skelet\u00e1<\/em>&nbsp;is the lone debut in the top 10 of the latest Billboard 200 chart. The titles at Nos. 2-7 are all former No. 1s. SZA\u2019s&nbsp;<em>SOS<\/em>&nbsp;slips to No. 2 (52,000 equivalent album units earned; down 1%), Kendrick Lamar\u2019s&nbsp;<em>GNX<\/em>&nbsp;falls 2-3 (48,000; down 5%), Morgan Wallen\u2019s&nbsp;<em>One Thing at a Time<\/em>&nbsp;is down 3-4 (46,000; down 4%), Sabrina Carpenter\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Short n\u2019 Sweet<\/em>&nbsp;descends 4-5 (44,000; down 8%), PARTYNEXTDOOR and Drake\u2019s&nbsp;<em>$ome $exy $ongs 4 U&nbsp;<\/em>falls 5-6 (43,000; down 6%) and Bad Bunny\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Deb\u00ed Tirar M\u00e1s Fotos&nbsp;<\/em>is down 6-7 (38,000; down 3%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shaboozey\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Where I\u2019ve Been, Isn\u2019t Where I\u2019m Going<\/em>&nbsp;gallops 45-8 with 35,000 equivalent album units earned (up 110%) after a deluxe reissue on April 25 that added six additional songs, bringing its total song count to 18. The set debuted and peaked at No. 5 on the June 15, 2024-dated list. (He also&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/lists\/stagecoach-2025-saturday-recap-jelly-roll-shaboozey\/\">played<\/a>&nbsp;the Stagecoach Festival on April 26.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Playboi Carti\u2019s chart-topping&nbsp;<em>MUSIC<\/em>&nbsp;(7-9; 34,000 equivalent album units, down 11%) and Morgan Wallen\u2019s former leader&nbsp;<em>Dangerous: The Double Album<\/em>&nbsp;(9-10; 33,000, down 3%) round out the Billboard 200\u2019s top 10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Source: billboard.com<\/p>\n<div id=\"themify_builder_content-4568\" data-postid=\"4568\" class=\"themify_builder_content themify_builder_content-4568 themify_builder themify_builder_front\">\r\n\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n<!-- \/themify_builder_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s the first hard rock album to be No. 1 in more than four years. Skelet\u00e1&nbsp;marks the ninth charted effort for the group on the&nbsp;Billboard&nbsp;200. The band first visited the list in 2013 with its second album,&nbsp;Infestissumam, which also marked the act\u2019s first top 40-charting set, reaching No. 28.&nbsp;Skelet\u00e1&nbsp;scores Ghost its eighth top 40 set, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4569,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music-now","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","no-post-comment","no-post-author"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/musicnow.iprorecords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Ghost-cr-Mikael-Eriksson-M-Industries-billboard-1548.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicnow.iprorecords.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicnow.iprorecords.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicnow.iprorecords.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicnow.iprorecords.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicnow.iprorecords.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4568"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/musicnow.iprorecords.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4571,"href":"https:\/\/musicnow.iprorecords.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4568\/revisions\/4571"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicnow.iprorecords.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicnow.iprorecords.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicnow.iprorecords.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicnow.iprorecords.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}