U.S. SoundScan Numbers
Here are Week 2's U.S. SoundScan numbers.
As we all know, the 90's "Best Of + B-sides" debuted at #3 last week with 184,804 copies sold in the U.S.
This week, this special edition plummets to #27 with 59,694 copies sold!
I have to admit, I am surprised at this huge drop. The 80's "Best Of + B-sides" dropped from #2 to #5 in its second week 4 years ago.
Of course, the most likely reason for the huge drop is that the 90's "Best Of" single CD disk debuts at #34 with 37,922 copies sold. I imagine that stores like Best Buy no longer have their special prices. As such, those interested in the 90's "Best Of" may have opted for the cheaper 1-disc CD instead of the more pricey 3-disc version.
Combined, the 90's "Best Of" sold 97,616 copies last week. If the two versions were combined, that would place it at #13 on the charts.
Before anyone gets too worked up over the drop of the B-sides version of the CD set, recall that it, in theory, is supposed to be a one-week promotion only. So stores might not be stocking up much on this item. Second, other big names took a big hit too. Justin Timberlake's "Justified" sold 439K copies last week, but drops to 189K copies this week. Chart-wise, that only drops him to #4, but that's a huge 250K drop.
It is my guess that in the coming weeks, both versions of the 90's "Best Of" will level off. With the holiday season almost upon us, we should see pretty strong sales through New Year's. My guess is around 50K if not as much as 75K in the coming weeks.
The 80's "Best Of" received a mini-boost last week, jumping from #55 to #43 with sales of 5,007 copies. However, it drops down to #65 this week with sales of 4,560 copies. To me, this is rather typical of the week-to-week fluctuation seen by this album, so no need for praise or concern.
ATYCLB may not have a long-life in the Catalog charts. It debuted at #91 two weeks ago. Last week, it dropped to #104 despite a sales boost to 3,018 copies. This week, it drops to #182 with 2,529 copies sold. This really isn't that big of a drop, but given the competition at this time of year, if ATYCLB's sales don't pick up soon, it may be out of the Top 200 on the Catalog charts by next week!
The one bit of positive news is that the 90's "Best Of + B-sides" is the #1 internet album. It was #2 last week behind Dave Matthews Band. DMB's album sold nearly 15K copies via the internet last week to rank #1. However, it dropped to a mere 1K copies this week to rank #28. U2's album sold 9K copies last week to rank #2 on the internet charts. It drops to 3.3K copies this week, which is just high enough to leap to #1 ahead of Pearl Jam's new album. The "Best Of" without b-sides debuts at #13 on the internet charts with 1.7K copies sold.
The VHS and DVD versions of the "Elevation" video both sell around 800 copies this week.