Post Malone's 'Hollywood's Bleeding' Heading for No. 1 Debut on Billboard 200 Albums Chart


Simone Joyner/Getty Images
Post Malone performs live on the Main Stage during day two of Reading Festival 2019 at Richfield Avenue on Aug. 24, 2019 in Reading, England.
Post Malone is aiming for his second No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart, as industry forecasters suggest his latest release, Hollywood’s Bleeding, will launch with perhaps 475,000 to 500,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Sept. 12 (with perhaps 200,000 of that sum in album sales).

If the album starts as expected, it will score the second-largest week for any album in 2019 in equivalent album units, following only Taylor Swift’s debut week with Lover (867,000 units in the week ending Sept. 5, according to Nielsen Music).

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week based on multi-metric consumption, which includes traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). The top 10 of the Sept. 21-dated Billboard 200 chart (where Hollywood’s Bleeding could debut at No. 1) is scheduled to be revealed on Billboard’s websites on Sunday, Sept. 15.

Post Malone photographed on Sept. 24, 2018 at The Paramour Estate in Los Angeles.

READ MORE
Post Malone's 'Hollywood's Bleeding' Album Tracks, Ranked

Further, Hollywood’s Bleeding could bow with the largest streaming week of the year, as it could generate 375 million on-demand audio streams for its tracks in the week ending Sept. 12. Currently, the largest streaming week of 2019 belongs to the debut frame of Ariana Grande’s Thank U, Next, which collected 307 million on-demand audio streams for its tracks in the week ending Feb. 14, according to Nielsen Music.

Hollywood’s Bleeding, which was released on Sept. 6 via Republic Records, follows Post Malone’s last album, beerbongs & bentleys. That set opened at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 dated May 12, 2018, with 461,000 equivalent album units earned in its first week (with 153,000 in album sales). In the album’s opening week, it collected 431.3 million on-demand audio streams for its tracks.

Other albums on course for significant debuts on next week’s Billboard 200 chart include: Melanie Martinez’s K-12, The Highwomen’s self-titled album, Lindsey Stirling’s Artemis and Earthgang’s Mirrorland.