Morgan Wallen’s ‘One Thing at a Time’ Tops Billboard 200 for Sixth Straight Week

Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time holds atop the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated April 22) for a sixth consecutive and total week at No. 1. The set earned 167,000 equivalent album units in the United States in the week ending April 13 (down 3%), according to Luminate. One Thing at a Time debuted at No. 1 on the chart dated March 18 and has held firm at No. 1 since.

Also in the top 10 of the new Billboard 200 chart, NF notches his fourth top 10-charting effort as Hope bows at No. 2, while Linkin Park’s former No. 1 Meteora re-enters the list at No. 8 after its 20th anniversary reissue.

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new April 22, 2023-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Tuesday (April 18). For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.

Of One Thing at a Time’s 167,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending April 13, SEA units comprise 158,500 (down 2%, equaling 211.05 million on-demand official streams of the set’s 36 songs), album sales comprise 6,000 (down 24%) and TEA units comprise 2,500 (down 1%).

NF’s Hope debuts at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, scoring the artist his fourth top 10-charting effort. The set launches with 123,000 equivalent album units. Of that sum, album sales comprise 80,500 (making it the top-selling album of the week), SEA units comprise 41,500 (equaling 56.85 million on-demand official streams of the set’s 13 songs — NF’s biggest streaming week yet), and TEA units comprise 1,000.

Hope’s handsome first-week sales figure — NF’s second-largest sales week ever — was bolstered by the album’s availability in an autographed CD edition in his webstore, a Target-exclusive CD with a poster packaged inside, four deluxe CD/merch boxed sets, and a both a white vinyl and a standard black vinyl edition.

Hope is the fourth album to debut at No. 2 behind One Thing at a Time, following Melanie Martinez’s Portals (April 15-dated chart), Jimin’s FACE (April 8) and TWICE’s Ready to Be (March 25). It’s not unusual for an album to spend a lengthy amount of time at No. 1 and end up blocking a number of albums from the top slot. Last year, for example, eight different albums peaked at No. 2 behind Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti.

Taylor Swift’s chart-topping Midnights rises 6-3 on the new Billboard 200 with 60,000 equivalent album units earned (down 2%), while SZA’s former leader SOS rises 5-4 with just under 60,000 units (down 7%). Martinez’s Portals dips 2-5 in its second week, with 48,000 (down 66%). Wallen’s former No. 1 Dangerous: The Double Album bumps 8-6 with 47,000 (up 7%), and Luke Combs’ Gettin’ Old is a non-mover at No. 7 with 46,000 (down 15%).

Linkin Park’s chart-topping Meteora re-enters the chart at No. 8, following the album’s 20th anniversary deluxe reissue on April 7. The set, which spun off such Billboard Hot 100 hits as “Numb” and “Faint” in 2003-04, returns with 38,500 equivalent album units earned (up 635%). Of that sum, album sales comprise 19,500, SEA units comprise 17,000 (equaling 23.65 million on-demand official streams of the set’s tracks) and TEA units comprise 2,000.

Meteora marked Linkin Park’s first of six No. 1s on the Billboard 200, when it debuted atop the chart dated April 12, 2003. The group’s second studio album spent two weeks atop the list. Previously, the rock band logged a pair of No. 2-peaking efforts with its debut studio set Hybrid Theory and the remix project Reanimation (both in 2002).

The 20th anniversary reissue was led by its first single, the from-the-vaults track “Lost” that was recorded for Meteora but didn’t make the original album’s final tracklist. The cut features the vocals of the band’s late lead singer Chester Bennington, who died in 2017. “Lost” debuted at No. 38 on the Billboard Hot 100 (Feb. 25, 2023 chart) and marked the group’s first new top 40 hit in over a decade. It’s one of a number of unreleased songs on the deluxe Meteora reissue, which also includes demo recordings, live cuts and other rarities.

Meteora was reissued in multiple expansive formats, including an 89-track digital download and streaming edition, a three-CD set, a four vinyl LP box and a super deluxe boxed set priced at $199.98 (containing five vinyl LPs, four CDs, three DVDs, a book and collectibles). All versions of the album, new and old, are combined for tracking and charting purposes.

Rounding out the top 10 of the new Billboard 200 is a pair of former No. 1s: Metro Boomin’s Heroes & Villains (steady at No. 9 with 36,000 equivalent album units earned; down 14%) and Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti (11-10 with 35,000; down 2%).

Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.

Keith Caulfield

Billboard