Billie Eilish’s ‘When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?’ Debuts at No. 1 on Billboard 200 Chart
Billie Eilish scores her first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart, as "When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?" storms in atop the tally with the second-largest week of 2019 for any album.
Billie Eilish scores her first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart, as When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? storms in atop the tally with 313,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending April 4, according to Nielsen Music, scoring the second-largest week of 2019 for any album. Of the album’s starting sum, 170,000 were in album sales, the second-largest sales week for an album this year.
When We All Fall Asleep was released on March 29 through Darkroom/Interscope Records.
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. Units are comprised of traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). The new April 13-dated chart (where When We All Fall Asleep enters at No. 1) will be posted in full on Billboard‘s websites on April 9.
The new album follows the steady success of Eilish’s first release, Don’t Smile at Me, which has spent 67 weeks on the chart, and rises 20-15 on the new tally. (It peaked at No. 14 in January.) The nine-song set was issued in 2017, has earned 947,000 equivalent album units, and generated more than 1.2 billion on-demand audio streams for its tracks.
In 2018, Eilish charted her first five entries on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, and has notched three more debuts in in 2019 (through the most recently published chart, dated April 6). She also clocked a top 10 hit on the Alternative Songs airplay chart in December with “You Should See Me in a Crown,” the first single from When We All Fall Asleep.
Here’s a look at some of the eye-popping achievements Eilish has accomplished with the debut of her new album, When We All Fall Asleep.
Second-Largest Week of 2019 for an Album: With When We All Fall Asleep’s starting sum of 313,000 units, it logs the second-largest week of 2019, in terms of total units, among all albums. Only Ariana Grande’s Thank U, Next garnered a bigger frame, when it debuted with 360,000 units earned (bowing at No. 1 on the Feb. 23-dated chart).
300,000 Club: As When We All Fall Asleep snared 313,000 units earned in its first week, it’s just the seventh album by a woman to tally over 300,000 units in at least one week, since the Billboard 200 chart began measuring by equivalent album units in December of 2014. The others: Taylor Swift’s 1989, Adele’s 25, Beyoncé’s Lemonade, P!nk’s Beautiful Trauma, Swift’s reputation and Grande’s Thank U, Next.
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Further, When We All Fall Asleep is marketed as Eilish’s proper debut album. If one compared the new album’s opening week to those of other debut albums, it would be the largest since the chart transitioned to an equivalent album units ranking in December 2014.
2019’s Second-Biggest Sales Week: When We All Fall Asleep sold 170,000 copies in its first frame, the second-largest sales week of 2019 for an album, and the largest for an album by a woman. The only bigger sales frame was tallied by Backstreet Boys’ DNA, which launched with 227,000 copies sold (Feb. 9-dated chart). (Both DNA and When We All Fall Asleep had concert ticket/album sale redemption offers assisting their first weeks.)
Vinyl Victory: When We All Fall Asleep sold a stunning 15,000 copies on vinyl LP, marking the largest sales week of 2019 for a vinyl album. The last larger week was tallied by Panic! at the Disco’s Pray for the Wicked, when it bowed with 26,000 sold on the July 7, 2018-dated chart. In total, since Nielsen began electronically tracking music sale purchases in 1991, When We All Fall Asleep is just the second album by a woman to sell at least 15,000 vinyl LPs in a week. The other? Adele’s 25, which notched five frames of 15,000-plus vinyl weeks.
Third-Biggest Streaming Week Ever for an Album by a Woman: Of When We All Fall Asleep’s starting total unit sum of 313,000 units, SEA units comprised 137,000 units. That latter total translates to 194 million on-demand audio streams for the album’s songs during its debut week. That figure represents the third-biggest streaming week for an album by a woman, following the debut weeks of Thank U, Next (307.07 million) and Cardi B’s Invasion of Privacy (202.65 million; chart dated April 21, 2018).
Youngest Woman at No. 1 Since 2009: Eilish is the first artist born in the 2000s to have a No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart. (Her birth date is Dec. 18, 2001.) At just 17 years and 3 months old, she is the youngest artist to hit No. 1 since 2015, when a then 16-year-old Shawn Mendes topped the chart dated May 2, 2015 with Handwritten. (Mendes was 16 years and eight months old at the time.) Eilish is the youngest woman to reach No. 1 since Demi Lovato debuted at No. 1 on the Aug. 8, 2009-dated chart with Here We Go Again, when she was 16 years and 11 months old.
At No. 2 on the new Billboard 200, the late Nipsey Hussle re-enters straight in at No. 2 with his 2018 debut studio effort Victory Lap. The set earned 66,000 equivalent album units in the week ending April 4 (up 2,244 percent), with 17,000 of that sum in album sales (up 7,205 percent). The album surpasses its original peak of No. 4, achieved in its debut frame on March 3, 2018.
Hussle died on March 31 after being shot outside of his Marathon Clothing store in Los Angeles.
Ariana Grande’s former No. 1, Thank U, Next, slips 2-3 in its eighth week on the tally with 53,000 units (down 14 percent).
Country king George Strait clocks his 21st top 10 Billboard 200 album, as his new Honky Tonk Time Machine debuts at No. 4 with 51,000 units (with 44,000 of that sum in album sales). Strait continues to have the most top 10s on the all-genre Billboard 200 chart among all country artists. Strait debuted on the Billboard 200 chart 35 years ago, on March 3, 1984 with Right or Wrong; logged his first visit to the top 10 with the Pure Country soundtrack in 1992; and was last in the top 10 with 2015’s Cold Beer Conversation (also debuting, and peaking, at No. 4).
The new top 10 on the Billboard 200 is rounded out by a gaggle of former No. 1s. Juice WRLD’s Death Race for Love dips 3-5 (44,000 units; down 19 percent), NAV’s Bad Habits descends 1-6 in its second week (35,000 units; down 58 percent), Post Malone’s beerbongs & bentleys climbs 8-7 (32,000 units; up less than 1 percent), Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s A Star Is Born soundtrack falls 6-8 (31,000 units; down 11 percent), A Boogie Wit da Hoodie’s Hoodie SZN slides 7-9 (30,000 units; down 4 percent) and Drake’s Scorpion bumps 12-10 (29,000 units; up less than 1 percent).