Heavy metal rockers Metallica soared to the top of the weekly US Billboard 200 album chart on Monday, edging out new records from R’n’B singer Bruno Mars and country singer Miranda Lambert.
Hardwired ... to Self-Destruct, Metallica’s 10th studio album, sold 282,000 albums, 34,000 songs and was streamed 9.3 million times, totalling 291,000 album units according to figures from Nielsen SoundScan for the week ending on November 24.
Billboard said Hardwired, driven by the strength of physical album sales, was the third-largest album debut of the year, behind Drake’s Views and Beyonce’s Lemonade. Mars’ 24k Magic debuted at No 2 with sales of 231,000 album units, while Lambert’s Weight of These Wings opened at No 3 with 133,000 album units.
The Billboard 200 album chart tallies units from album sales, song sales (10 songs equal one album) and streaming activity (1,500 streams equal one album).
On the Digital Songs chart, which measures online song sales, hip-hop duo Rae Sremmurd held steady at No 1 with Black Beatles, selling 138,000 copies in the past week.
