Twenty One Pilots Top Album Chart With Taylor Swift Close Behind

Twenty One Pilots is on top of the Billboard 200 album chart this week with Blurryface. Billboard broke the news this morning.

“Twenty One Pilots flies in for its first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart, as the duo’s new effort, Blurryface, wings its way to a chart-topping debut. The set, which was released on May 18 through Fueled by Ramen Records, moved 146,000 units in the week ending May 24, according to Nielsen Music.”

Billboard notes that Twenty One Pilots actually sold 134,000 physical and digital albums. However, because of the new streaming rules, Blurryface has sold a total of 146,000 album equivalents. The Pilots’ 2013 album Vessel has sold 258,000 copies and peaked at No. 58 on the Billboard 200 album chart in early 2013.

Thanks to the release of the “Bad Blood” video, Taylor Swift has zoomed back to No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with 1989. Billboard notes that there was a 146 percent unit gain since the Billboard Music Awards on May 17. Swift moves 91,000 units this week, which is the best sales week for 1989 since February. Keep in mind that Taylor Swift doesn’t put her music on Spotify. Perhaps if she did, Swift might have been No. 1 this week. Time Magazine recently asked Taylor Swift why she left the popular music streaming service.

“Well, they can still listen to my music if they get it on iTunes. I’m always up for trying something. And I tried it and I didn’t like the way it felt. I think there should be an inherent value placed on art. I didn’t see that happening, perception-wise, when I put my music on Spotify. Everybody’s complaining about how music sales are shrinking, but nobody’s changing the way they’re doing things.”

Taylor Swift went on to note that consumers are running toward streaming, which has been shrinking the number of paid album sales. However, Swift is still one of the only artists who can sell millions of physical albums.

Will Twenty One Pilots still have the No. 1 album next week on the Billboard 200? It’s quite doubtful. On iTunes, the album has fallen to No. 9 as of Tuesday morning. On Amazon, the physical album has fallen to No. 4, while the digital album has fallen to No. 7. Still, it’s doubtful that Twenty One Pilot’s album will fall as fast as previous albums by Tech N9ne or Shawn Mendes. Blurryface still has a lot of legs and critical acclaim, so it’s likely to stay in the top ten for at least another month. Did you purchase or listen to the new Twenty One Pilots album? Let us know in the comments section.

[Photo Credit: Billboard]