Ryan Smith
Morgan Wallens One thing at a time debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated March 18) with 501,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. for the week ending March 9, according to Luminate. It’s the biggest week of 2023 for any album by units earned, the biggest since Taylor Swift’s Midnights debut with 1.578 million (week ending October 27, 2022; chart dated November 5, 2022) and the biggest week for a country album since Swift’s Red (Taylor’s Version) opened with 604,500 (week ending November 18, 2021; chart dated November 27, 2021).
A whopping 76% of One thing at a time‘s debut week total was driven by streaming activity. The set’s 36 tracks generated a combined 498.28 million on-demand official streams in the US in the album’s first week – marking the fifth-biggest streaming week ever for an album, and the biggest ever for a country album.
One thing at a time was released March 3 via Big Loud/Mercury/Republic Records and is the follow-up to Wallen’s chart-topping effort Dangerous: The Double Albumreleased in January 2021. The latter spent 10 weeks atop the Billboard 200 chart and ranks at No. 6 on the most recent chart – its 110th consecutive week in the top 10. It now has the second-most weeks in the top 10 of the chart alone 67-year history that exceeded 109 weeks for the soundtrack The sound of music. (The original cast recording of My Fair Lady holds the record for most weeks in the top 10 with 173.)
One thing at a time ahead of the release of nine songs from the album as far back as April 2022. Four of these songs topped Billboard‘s Hot Country Songs chart: “Don’t Think Jesus”, “Thought You Should Know”, “You Proof” and “Last Night”, the latter of which has reigned for four straight weeks (through the most recently announced 11 March -dated ranking).
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the United States based on multimetric consumption measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. The units include 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 March 18, 2023 dated chart will be published in full on Billboard‘s website on March 14. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
Of One thing at a time‘s 501,000 equivalent album units earned, SEA units include 382,000 (equivalent to 498.28 million on-demand official streams of the set’s 36 tracks), album sales include 111,500 and TEA units include 7,500. The album’s sales were driven by its digital download option (87,500; available as both a clean and explicit edition), while its double CD (explicit only) sold 24,000. On the last day of the tracking week, the digital album was also offered in two alternative cover variants in Wallen’s official webshop at a reduced price. The set was not released commercially in other formats.
One thing at a time has the second biggest week of 2023 in traditional album sales for an album, behind the debut frame of TOMORROW X TOGETHER’s Name Chapter: Temptation (152,000; chart dated Feb. 11). One thing at a time has the biggest sales week for a country album since Red (Taylor’s Version) sold 369,000 in its first week (Nov 27, 2021, chart).
As mentioned above, One thing at a time captures the fifth-biggest streaming week ever for an album. The four biggest streaming weeks for albums, measured by number of streams earned, were all debut frames as well. Drake’s Scorpion leads the pack as it collected 745.92 million clicks for its 25 tracks in the week ending July 5, 2018. Scorpion followed by opening weeks of Drake’s Certified Lover Boy (743.67 million for its 21 tracks, week ending September 9, 2021), Taylor Swift’s Midnights (549.26 million for its 20 tracks across standard and deluxe editions, week ending October 27, 2022) and Drake and 21 Savage’s Her loss (513.56 million for its 16 tracks, week ending November 10, 2022).
Certainly the fact that One thing at a time has 36 songs helping its first week numbers – as streaming activity for the chart is measured by taking the number of streams generated by each song on an album and adding them together for an overall total. Had the album been shortened to a length comparable to Drake’s 25 tracks Scorpion, it would still have had a large streaming number. The 25 most streamed songs on One thing at a time generated 397.93 million on-demand official streams — which would make it the 10th biggest streaming week of all time, and still the biggest among all country albums. Had One thing at a time‘s tracklist has been even shorter – as short as Drake and 21 Savage’s 16 tracks Her lossit would still have had a robust, but not quite as eye-catching, streaming start. One thing at a time‘s top 16 most streamed tracks generated a combined 294.65 million on-demand official streams — which would have ranked the set among the top 20 streaming weeks of all time, though still the second biggest streaming week for a country album (behind Swift’s debut Red (Taylor’s Version)with 303.23 million for its 30 tracks).
In the last 12 months, One thing at a time has the most songs on his streaming album by any No. 1 on the Billboard 200, excluding the 44 tracks Charm soundtrack — though most of those 44 tracks are scores and instrumental cuts, and the vast majority of the album’s streaming activity has come from the set’s nine focal songs, including the ensemble smash “We Don’t Talk About Bruno.” Including Charmin the past 12 months, the average tracklist length for the streaming version of a No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 has been 19. If we remove Charm from the math, the average drops to 18. In the past 12 months, only four No. 1 albums have had fewer than 12 songs — and all of them were K-pop projects, driven mostly by CD album sales, not streams.
A few final notes about Wallen… he’s the first male artist with back-to-back country No. 1s on the Billboard 200 since 2019, when Thomas Rhett got his second consecutive No. 1 with Center Point Roadfollowing Life changes in 2017. Wallen also has the biggest week for any country album by a male artist since the Billboard 200 began tracking equivalent album units in December 2014. In fact, only one country album has had a bigger week in that span — Swift’s Red (Taylor’s Version)with 604,500 units in its debut week in 2021. (Country albums are considered those that have hit or are eligible for Billboard‘s Top Country Albums chart.)
Notably, since the Billboard 200 began measuring by equivalent album units in December 2014 (switching from an album sales-only method to a mix of album sales, SEA and TEA), only nine acts have registered half a million units in a week for an album ( where some have done it with multiple albums). They are: Adele, Beyoncé, Justin Bieber, Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Travis Scott, Harry Styles, Taylor Swift and Wallen.
At No. 2 on the new Billboard 200, SZA’s SEA holding steady with 82,000 equivalent album units earned (down 5%). The set previously spent 10 weeks without a move at the top of the chart. Karol G’s tomorrow will be nice falls 1-3 in its second week with 60,000 units (down 36%).
Kali Uchis achieves her first top 10 album on the Billboard 200 as Red Moon on Venus debuts at No. 4 with 55,000 equivalent album units earned. Of this total, album sales comprise 28,000, SEA units comprise 27,000 (equivalent to 35.49 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs) and TEA units make up a negligible sum. The most English-language project is the artist’s first album release since the breakthrough success of 2021’s most Spanish-language single “Telepatía” (from her last album, 2020’s Spanish-language Fearless (of love and other demons)). That track spent eight weeks at No. 1 on Hot Latin Songs (her first leader there) and marked her first top 40 hit on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 (which peaked at No. 25 and spent 25 weeks on the chart). Red Moon on Venus includes guest appearances from Omar Apollo, Don Toliver and Summer Walker.
Six former No. 1s round out the top 10 of the new Billboard 200: Swift’s Midnights is stationary at No. 5 (48,000 equivalent album units earned, down 1%); Wallens Dangerous: The Double Album is a non-mover at No. 6 (46,000, down less than 1%); Metro Boomin’s Heroes and villains is steady at No. 7 (40,000, down 4%); Bad Bunny’s A summer without you rises 10-8 (39,000, up less than 1%); The Weeknd’s Starboy holds at No. 9 (35,000, down 13%) and Drake and 21 Savage’s Her loss rises 11-10 (34,000, down 5%).
Luminate, the independent data provider for Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used to compile the weekly chart rankings. Light through reviews and authenticates data. In cooperation with Billboarddata deemed suspicious or unverifiable are removed using established criteria before final chart calculations are made and published.