Bon Jovi Debuts At #1 On Billboard 200, David Bowie Takes #2
Posted by Joseph Lee on 03.19.2013
Full top ten coming tomorrow...
Billboard reports that Bon Jovi earned its fifth #1 album on the Billboard 200 as What About Now debuted with 96,000 sold. It's their third straight to debut at #1 after The Circle (2009) and Lost Highway (2007). Their previous #1 albums include New Jersey (1988) and Slippery When Wet (1986).
David Bowie comes in at #2 with The Next Day selling 85,000. It is his first album since 2003 and is his largest sales week since 1991. His previous best was 2002's Heathen, which started at #14 with 55,000. This is Bowie's seventh top 10 album. He last had an album in that range in 1983 with Let's Dance (#4). Until now, his highest-charting album was Station to Station, which spent two weeks at #3 in 1976.
It seemed neck and neck between the two last week, with Bowie predicted to take the top spot due to strong digital sales. Eventually Bon Jovi sold more and got to the top, due to weekend CD purchases at Walmart and Target.
Bowie's album did sell more downloads, as it had 41,000 digital copies and was the top-selling digital album of the week. 48% of his first week were downloads while Bon Jovi sold 34,000 digital copies 36% of its total sales.
This is the smallest debut for Bon Jovi since 1995's These Days, which came in at #9 with 73,000. Their previous two albums, The Circle and Lost Highway, came in with 163,000 and 292,000, respectively.
