Lorde’s ‘Virgin’ Album Debuts at No. 2 on Billboard Chart

Lorde’s fourth album, “Virgin,” debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 album chart, pulling in 71,000 album-equivalent units, a figure that got a big boost from the singer’s strong vinyl sales.

According to Billboard, “Virgin” sold 31,000 copies on vinyl during its first week, her best weekly tally ever in the LP format. Eight different vinyl variants were available of Lorde’s album, including signed editions. Combining that LP total with additional sales in digital and CD formats, “Virgin” sold 41,000 copies altogether, accounting for more than half of her overall unit total.

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The album debuted at No. 1 on the album sales chart, though it had to settle for No. 6 on the streaming chart. The album’s songs picked up 37.07 million on-demand streams, which translated to 29,000 SEA (streaming equivalent albums) units.

These numbers marked an uptick from the first-week performance of Lorde’s previous album, “Solar Power,” which debuted with 56,000 units and entered the Billboard 200 at No. 5 in 2021. That album debuted with a considerably lower number of on-demand streams, 28.38 million, than “Virgin” did. The four-year-old release also sold fewer copies, officially, with 34,000 in all formats (although there was controversy at the time because Billboard did not recognize sales for a “music box” release that consisted of a bar code inside a physical box at retail).

Unlike “Solar Power,” Lorde did release a CD edition of “Virgin,” although Billboard did not immediately break out sales for that format. The compact disc prompted chatter among fans for being completely transparent to the naked eye, thematically in keeping with a cover design that featured an X-ray of the singer’s pelvic region — which prompted plaudits for its design but mixed reactions when the CD turned out to be playable on some systems but not others.

Even with an increase in units this time around, Lorde was inevitably destined to come in second to the the inevitable chart leader, Morgan Wallen’s indomitable “I’m the Problem,” which earned 173,000 more units in its seventh straight week at No. 1.

There were two other brand new entries in the top 10: Katseye’s “Beautiful Chaos” debuted at No. 4, with 44,000 equivalent album units. And Russ’ “Wild” bowed at No. 10 with 32,000. Both these releases were similar to Lorde’s in having sales accounting for an unusually high percentage of their totals, versus streaming.

Physical sales were also a factor in the album making the biggest leap of the week. Playboi Carti’s formerly chart-topping “Music” made a big jump from No. 28 to No. 8, due to a vinyl edition coming out.

The soundtrack to the Netflix film “KPop Demon Hunters” was another substantial grower, moving up from No. 8 to No. 3 in its second week on the chart, with 62,000 units. Unlike all of the aforementioned albums, this one’s strength was heavily weighted toward streaming, with its songs attracting 77.42 million on-demand streams for the week.

Holdover albums included Karol G’s “Tropicoqueta,” down two spots to No. 5 in week 2; SZA’s “SOS,” down three spots to No. 7; and Sabrina Carpenter’s “Short ‘n Sweet,” also down three spots at No. 9, with a followup album teed up to come out in less than two months.

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