The announcement that Prince had died was made late on Thursday morning in the U.S. The Billboard charts for the week closed at midnight Thursday night.
In just the 16 to 18 hours after Prince’s passing, he sold 200,000 albums and 900,000 tracks and the albums flew up the charts to where he will have the top two albums in the country when the Billboard charts are released on Tuesday.
According to Hits Daily Double, who does a scientific sample of retailers to project sales and chart position for the week, The Very Best of Prince sold 95,824 estimated copies (what they call “sales index”) while, with streaming added, the number jumps to 171,923. That will give him the fifth number 1 album of his tragically shortened career:
Purple Rain (1984)
Around the World in a Day (1985)
Batman (1989)
3121 (2006)
The Very Best of Prince (released 2001, reaching number 1 in 2016)
Number 2 for the week on both charts is the singer’s first number 1, Purple Rain, with projected sales of 55,315 and Sales + Streaming of 65,417.
Further down the charts are four more Prince albums.
The Hits/The B-Sides (Sales: 21,698 / #7 // Sales + Streaming: 32,418 / #10)
1999 (Sales: 12,231 / #14 // Sales + Streaming: 17,881 / #20)
Ultimate Prince (Sales: 7,613 / #23 // Sales + Streaming: 10,523 / #43)
Sign O’ the Times (Sales: 5,719 / #37 // Sales + Streaming: Did not make top 50)
Remember, these sales were just for a less than twenty hour period on Thursday. The albums are continuing to track very high on both the iTunes and Amazon charts and it is very likely the numbers will be higher when a full week is used. At this point, there is only one thing that would keep Prince from the top of the charts for a second week and that would be the rumored release of a new Beyonce album this weekend.
Other veteran artists did have new released last week with the biggest being the reunion of the original Santana band with Santana IV. They would have come in just behind Sturgill Simpson who was on track for the number one album prior to the Prince tragedy. Sales for Santana IV are projected at 34,255 with Sales + Streaming at 35,558. That gives the band a projected start of number 5 for the week.
Ace Frehley’s Origins, Vol. 1 should also see a top thirty debut with Sales of 16,113 (#9) and Sales + Streaming of 16,386 (#22).
The Hope Six Demolition Project by P.J. Harvey has projected sales of 7,524 (#24) but not enough additional “sales” when streaming is added to make the top fifty. The same goes for Graham Nash whose This Path Tonight is at 34 on the Sales chart with 5,954 but also didn’t make the Sales + Streaming.
Final charts will be out on Tuesday.
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