NEW YORK, NEW YORK – DECEMBER 31: BTS attend Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest … [+] 2020 on December 31, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images for Dick Clark Productions )
Getty Images for Dick Clark Productions
After just one week of activity, BTS’s new album Map of the Soul: 7 was already one of the most successful releases of the year in the United States, as it shifted 422,000 equivalent units upon arrival. Now that a second full tracking frame has passed, the set has reached a special milestone and moved up on the ranking of the biggest releases of 2020.
According to data published by BuzzAngle (a Billboard competitor) on HitsDailyDouble, Map of the Soul: 7 has now shifted over 540,000 equivalent units, making it one of only three titles to hit that mark this year. After just two weeks of activity, BTS’s latest chart-topper is already the third-biggest title of 2020 looking at total equivalent units moved.
In a very distant first place among all albums is Roddy Ricch’s Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial, which has reportedly shifted just under three quarters of a million equivalent units this year. That sum is largely powered by streaming, as the title has apparently only sold just over 10,000 copies.
Eminem comes in second on the list of the best-performing albums of 2020 with his surprise release Music to Be Murdered By, which has also shifted over 500,000 equivalent units. The set appeared out of nowhere in January, easily snatching the throne.
While Map of the Soul: 7 may be in third place when taking into account track sale and streaming equivalent albums, the set is the bestselling title of the year when focusing solely on purchases.
The numbers published by BuzzAngle differ from Billboard’s, which claims that Map of the Soul: 7 has moved just slightly over 500,000 equivalent units after two weeks of streaming and buying. While the data may be different, the ranking is bound to be similar, and it’s likely that wherever the information comes from, BTS is probably comfortable in third place on the ranking of the most successful albums of the year.
BuzzAngle’s data is helpful because unlike Billboard, which sources its information from Nielsen Music, the former now publishes a chart that keeps track of the best-performing albums throughout the year. Billboard does not have such a public-facing list.
BTS will probably hold onto the No. 3 spot on this important ranking for a while, as they are unlikely to best either Ricch or Eminem, and it doesn’t seem like any of the albums that are nearest to Map of the Soul: 7 will overtake it anytime soon. It also seems unlikely that new releases will rack up enough streams and sales in the coming frames to blow past them.
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