Lady Gaga has earned her first number one album in the United States. The freshly-released
Born This Way
debuts atop the Billboard 200 with more than 1,108,000 copies sold in
its first week, outselling the rest of the top 20 combined.
Born This Way scores the biggest first-week sales since 50 Cent’s
The Massacre
(2005) and becomes only the ninth fastest-selling album in the U.S.
ever. What makes Lady Gaga’s achievement even more impressive is the
fact that album sales have decreased 65% over the last ten years. With
sales going down year after year, do you think Gaga will be able to
deliver another 1 million opening week with her next record? Let us know
in the comments below!
It should be noted that least 300k copies came from Amazon’s promotion, which made
Born This Way
available for just 99 cents to draw interest in the company’s new cloud
service. However, Lady Gaga’s manager Troy Carter does not view the
deal as a chart manipulation, but rather as an opportunity to get more
fans listen to the music legally. “Although we weren’t aware of Amazon’s
deal, I applaud them for their efforts,” he said. “Anytime we can get
people to purchase music legally, it’s a good thing for the business.”
Born This Way has also made its debut at number one on
official charts in the UK, Ireland, Canada, Germany, France, Japan,
Australia and New Zealand.
