Coldplay’s “Mylo Xyloto” Debuts On Billboard Hot 200 At No. 1

Coldplay’s new album “Mylo Xyloto” debuted this week at the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 chart, the third time the band has grabbed a No. 1 release in five studio attempts.

The Mylo Xyloto album managed to rack up 447,000 purchases during the first week of sales according to Nielsen SoundScan, marking the third highest debut sales level for an album in 2011. The only two albums to perform better this year have been Lady Gaga’s Born This Way (1.1 million first week album sales) and Lil Wayne’s “Tha Carter IV” (964,000 first week album sales).

Billboard.com reports that the album also marks the biggest sales week for a rock album since U2’s No Line On The Horizon which debuted on March 21, 2009 with first week sales of 484,000 albums, also good enough at the time for the No. 1 spot for the Billboard Hot 200.

Coldplay joins a rare occurrence among rock acts, since SoundScan began tracking album sales in 1991 only 5 rock groups have surpassed 400,000 first week album sales, those groups including the Beatles (three-times), Dave Matthews Band (five times), Metallica (six times) and U2 (three times).

Coldplay’s first two No. 1 albums included 2008’s Viva La Vida Or Death and All his Friends (721,000) and 2005’s X&Y (737,000).

It should be noted that Viva’s success was owed largely to a catchy first single that became the poster song for one of the most recognizable Apple iTunes TV commercials of the year, a fact that helped the smash single Viva La Vida skyrocket to the top of the charts.

While the new album is a No. 1 hit the first single, “Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall” has peaked at No. 14 on the Hot 100.

Putting the albums release in perspective the Kelly Clarkson album Stronger managed to rack up just 163,000 copies.

Are you surprised that Coldplay’s new album debuted to decently strong numbers?

[Image via Rovenko Design / Shutterstock.com]