‘positions’ by Ariana Grande #1 on Billboard 200 with 174,000 units

[Teletubby 149,577]

Ariana is the first big artist who released album after Billboard rules have changed. She couldn't count bundles to sale and had to ship her album in the same week.

 

[StrawberryBlond 14,862]

I honestly thought she'd do 250k at least. The last minute announcement is likely a big part of it. Just 42k pure sales is very strange considering how many devoted fans she has. It was shocking to find that this is only the fourth female album to go #1 this year (Selena, Gaga and Taylor until now). The public's here for females from a singles standpoint right now but is still hesitant when it comes to albums, it seems.

[Taylucifer 5,154]

I thought they were getting brave

[MessyTop 14,389]

Wow, in shock that Sam Smith sold that little. Their pure sales are abysmal. 

[noa234 5,063]

[BlondeQueenOfGGD 25,454]

I didn’t think Sam would sell that low, several people here used to say that they were the male Adele so I always assumed they sold millions  (This was before they identified as non binary so don’t come for me.)

Ariana’s numbers aren’t bad but not good

[mr.peter 3,555]

pop music just isn't popular right now

[pedrohemg 7,802]

Even lower than HDD final numbers.

[Aleks 3,946]

1 minute ago, Justin Drew Bieber said:

several people here used to say that they were the female Adele

[Mister Gaga 22,913]

Well, i see positions kinda like a side project for Ariana. Ha Cheek to Cheek. So, it's not great but it's not bad either. Another #1 on the bag

[MadreMonster 2,584]

10 minutes ago, StrawberryBlond said:

I honestly thought she'd do 250k at least. The last minute announcement is likely a big part of it. Just 42k sales is very strange considering how many devoted fans she has. It was shocking to find that this is only the fourth female album to go #1 this year (Selena, Gaga and Taylor until now). The public's here for females from a singles standpoint right now but is still hesitant when it comes to albums, it seems.

Bundles are no longer counted towards sales - we will continue to see sales drop.

Just imagine if Chromatica didn’t have merch bundles counted.

[BlondeQueenOfGGD 25,454]

2 minutes ago, Aleks said:

I edited my post

[Contessa 1,879]

No bundles no sales. 

[Flawless 2,234]

really bad for her if u ask me. even in streams, the drop from thank u next is huge. maybe the lack of promotion influenced idk. 

[mercurial high 152]

I wonder how much Taylor will do with her next studio album...

Edit: But that also depends on other things than bundles (if she'll do a normal rollout or not, etc)