The numbers are in: after a whirlwind week of publicity (including a $3.99 campaign on Amazon.com and five straight nights performing on David Letterman), U2’s latest album, No Line on the Horizon, topped the Billboard 200 with 484,000 copies sold, ending Taylor Swift’s long reign in first place. It is Bono and company’s seventh No. 1 album, and the highest first-week sales for an artist since Britney Spears’ Circus moved 505,000 in December. Most significantly, U2 is now tied for second (with Led Zeppelin) for second most No. 1 albums by a band, behind only The Beatles. No Line on the Horizon is the group’s first record since 2004’s How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, which also debuted at No. 1 and sold 840,000 in its first week.
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Comments (1-14) of 14 Add your comment
It shows how much CD sales have succumbed to internet downloading since 5 years ago. U2’s first week sales for “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb” were nearly double those for “No Line on the Horizon”, but we’re still celebrating the band’s success. In the past, it would have been a sign of a diminishing fanbase, but it isn’t the case now.
The new U2 album has also been released in March,which is a slow period for album sales…if they had released it last November when the holiday season was right around the corner and the bottom hadn’t fell out of the economy at that point …you could have added another 100,000 to the first week U2 album sales.
is there a place where to find total figures,ie CDs plus downloads (legal, of course)?
thanks
Finally…substance defeats style.
Yes, ew.com: The mighty U2 toppled your nemesis Taylor Swift. Whose album keeps rebounding to number one, not maintaining a chokehold on it. Why do you have to keep kicking this girl? And sorry, but when a band like U2 can’t outsell first week sales of Britney Spears, based on the “tour-de-force” that is Womanizer, that’s not much of a victory.
Great CD!
good to know taylor swift your comment is surprising when you compare Spears who’s been making albums for 10 years or so to a band that’s been doing it for close to 30! You really think Spears would approach that number in 20 years?? Really?
No ossie, I don’t. I’m a U2 fan (and I don’t think that Womanizer is really a tour-de-force, either.) It’s just there seems to be some mandate by ew.com to take swipes at Taylor Swift in every post they can squeeze, related or not. It’s kind of like a game now, to find the most unrelated dig at her.
taylor swift sucks, she’s tone deaf, can’t carry a tune and can’t write for sh*t. I’m glad ew for ONCE isn’t lapping up the latest “hot” thing (guess we could ask for less twilight coverage but lets not keep our hopes up.)
I love TAYLOR SWIFT!!!! She is amazing!!!!!
Taylor will be back on top next week, just like she was the week after Bruce’s album debuted. When you write great songs, you have staying power!
Well it seems CBS has won another push for themselves as they kick around some old folk! Taylor Swift a internet fraud!
Taylor Swift sold 542,000 copies in her first week…that’s more than Britney Spears and U2.
And has been on top for 11 weeks (non-consecutively of course)
but I’m pretty sure that proves that she has talent and out sold U2. They’re a great band, but I think she’ll be back on top in a few weeks no problem.
She’s consistently selling over 60,000 copies every week.
Incredible. She’s amazing.
cool!