Eminem Back At Number One, Goes Double Platinum
Eminem's "Recovery" rebounds to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 after two weeks of sitting by in the runner-up slot. It climbs back to the top with 133,000 according to Nielsen SoundScan (down 13%). It's the most weeks at No. 1 for an album since Susan Boyle's "I Dreamed a Dream" claimed six straight frames at the top in December and January.
"Recovery" also earns its eighth consecutive week of selling at least 100,000 copies -- its entire chart life. The last time a set sold 100,000 or more in each of its first eight frames was back in November and December of last year, when Andrea Bocelli's "My Christmas" managed the achievement. Previous to that, the last album with a greater initial start was the "Now 20" compilation, which began with nine consecutive weeks of 100,000 or more in November and December of 2005.
The total sales of "Recovery" also drive past the two million threshold this week (2.1 million, according to Nielsen SoundScan) -- marking just the second album to do so this year. It's currently 2010's second-best seller behind Lady Antebellum's "Need You Now" (2.5 million).
At this point last year, no albums had surpassed more than two million in sales -- though seven had shifted at least a million. This year, six have hit the million mark, with Usher's "Raymond v Raymond" the latest to cross the line. It sells another 15,000 this week, bring its to-date sum to just over one million.
Last week's No. 1 album, Arcade Fire's "The Suburbs," drops to No. 2 in its second week with 52,000 (down 66%). With its debut frame perhaps overly weighted with download sales generated from sale pricing via Amazon's MP3 store, its second-week decline isn't a shocker. (It's down 74% in download sales.)
Eminem also moves back to No. 1 on the Digital Songs chart, where his "Love the Way You Lie" (featuring Rihanna) moves up one spot with 254,000 (down 9%). It replaces last week's No. 1-debuting "Mine" from Taylor Swift, which started with 297,000. This week, "Mine" drops to No. 4 with 176,000 (down 41%).
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