Coldplay Lands Fifth No. 1 Album on Billboard 200 With ‘Moon Music’

October 14, 2024 E Jazz Reporter

Entertainment

The set launches with the band’s biggest week since 2015.

Coldplay

Anna Lee

Coldplay captures its fifth No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart, and first in over a decade, as Moon Music debuts atop the list (dated Oct. 19). The set launches with 120,000 equivalent album units earned, of which 106,000 are in traditional album sales. Both figures represent the biggest week, by units and album sales, for the group since 2015.

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Overall, Moon Music marks the 10th top 10-charting effort for the band. The act previously led the list with Ghost Stories (2014), Mylo Xyloto (2011), Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends (2008) and X&Y (2005).

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Oct. 19, 2024-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Tuesday (Oct. 15). For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.

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Of Moon Music’s first-week units of 120,000, album sales comprise 106,000 (it’s the top-selling album of the week at No. 1 on Top Album Sales), SEA units comprise 13,000 (equaling 16.71 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs) and TEA units comprise 1,000. The group last garnered a larger week, in either overall units or album sales, with the debut frame of 2015’s A Head Full of Dreams, which bowed with 210,000 units, of which 195,000 were in traditional album sales.

The new album’s opening-week sales were bolstered by its availability across at least eight vinyl variants (including two signed editions, and a Target edition with three bonus tracks) and in six CD variants (including a signed edition, and a “notebook edition” in collectible packaging with bonus voice notes) — all of which were manufactured with eco-friendly initiatives. The set was also available in at least four digital download variants. Of the digital editions, there were two versions that each included 10 bonus tracks each. Coldplay’s official webstore offered the download editions at a discount during release week.

The album’s vinyl sales total 29,000 for the week — Coldplay’s best sales week on vinyl ever.

The new album was preceded by the single “feelslikeimfallinginlove,” which reached No. 81 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 chart in July. It also reached the top 10 on Alternative Airplay and Adult Pop Airplay, the act’s 15th and 12th top 10 on those tallies, respectively.

The new album’s Oct. 4 release was ushered in with a flurry of media looks, including appearances and/or performances by the band or its frontman Chris Martin on CBS’ Sunday Morning (Sept. 29), QVC (Oct. 2), NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (Oct. 3), NBC’s Saturday Night Live (Oct. 5) and NBC’s Today (Oct. 8).

Notably, among British groups, Coldplay ties for the fourth-most No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200. Leading the pack are The Beatles, with 19 leaders. The Rolling Stones are second, with nine, while Led Zeppelin is third, with seven No. 1s. Coldplay, Pink Floyd and Wings (counting albums billed to either Wings, or Paul McCartney and Wings) are tied with five No. 1s each.

Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet falls a spot to No. 2 (with 93,000 equivalent album units; down 8%) after four nonconsecutive weeks atop the list. It’s No. 1 on the Top Streaming Albums chart for a sixth nonconsecutive week. Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess dips 2-3 on the Billboard 200 (56,000; down 12%), Morgan Wallen’s chart-topping One Thing at a Time is a non-mover at No. 4 (50,000; down less than 1%), and Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft is stationary at No. 5 (50,000; up 1%).

Three former leaders are up next, with Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department rising one spot to No. 6 (45,000 equivalent album units; up 1%), Post Malone’s F-1 Trillion dips 6-7 (43,000; down 8%) and Future’s Mixtape Pluto falls 3-8 (40,000; down 28%).

Rounding out the top 10 are Noah Kahan’s Stick Season, descending 8-9 (37,000 equivalent album units; down 2%), and Wallen’s former No. 1 Dangerous: The Double Album, holding steady at No. 10 (32,000; down 2%).

Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.

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