Ghost earns first #1 album on Billboard 200 with ‘Skeletá’

[TaylorSwift 162,293]

Ghost grabs the No. 1 slot on the Billboard 200 albums chart for the first time, as the Swedish hard rock band’s new studio effort Skeletá debuts atop the tally (dated May 10) with 86,000 equivalent album units earned in the United States .

Of Skeletá’s 86,000 first-week equivalent album units, album sales comprise 77,000 (it debuts at No. 1 on Top Album Sales), SEA units comprise 9,000 (equaling 12.45 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs). The set’s first-week sales were bolstered by its availability across more than 15 vinyl variants, three CD variants and four cassette variants (all containing the same tracklist, but in collectible packaging).

Skeletá marks the ninth charted effort for the group on the Billboard 200. The band first visited the list in 2013 with its second album, Infestissumam, which also marked the act’s first top 40-charting set, reaching No. 28. Skeletá scores Ghost its eighth top 40 set, and fifth to reach the top 10. The band had previously gone as high as No. 2 with its last full-length studio album, 2022’s Impera.

Skeletá is the first hard rock album to lead the Billboard 200 in over four years, and the only rock, hard rock or alternative album to be No. 1 in 2025. The last hard rock album at No. 1 was AC/DC’s Power Up, which premiered at No. 1 on the Nov. 28, 2020, chart and spent one week at No. 1. The last rock, or alternative, album to lead the tally was Coldplay’s Moon Music, when it debuted at No. 1 on the Oct. 19, 2024, chart (spending one week at No. 1).

1. Ghost - Skeletá: 86,000 units
2. SZA - SOS 52,000 units
3. Kendrick Lamar - GNX 48,000 units
4. Morgan Wallen - One Thing at a Time 46,000 units
5. Sabrina Carpenter - Short n’ Sweet 44,000 units
6. PARTYNEXTDOOR and Drake - $ome $exy $ongs 4 U 43,000 units
7. Bad Bunny - Debí Tirar Más Fotos 38,000 units
8. Shaboozey - Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going  35,000 units
9. Playboi Carti - MUSIC  34,000 units
10. Morgan Wallen - Dangerous: The Double Album  33,000 units

 

[Bronco 24,781]

Still surprised Impera only hit #2 given the Mary On A Cross smash. 

But if I remember rightly, Mary On A Cross may have went viral just as the era was starting. 

[KevinWright 1,718]

A European (and non-English) rock artist did that on BBH200 chart? 

We love to see it 

[Jill 31,812]

1 hour ago, KevinWright said:

A European (and non-English) rock artist did that on BBH200 chart? 

Gosh I hate equality

[CautiousLurker 19,709]

WHY IS GAGA NOT IN THE TOP 10

[4th Time Around 5,059]

Ghost is a wonderful band and I love to see them getting some mainstream recognition. 

[TaylorSwift 162,293]

they are the second Swedish act in history to reach the top of the Billboard 200, following Ace Of Base's The Sign in 1993

[Bronco 24,781]

3 minutes ago, Teletubby said:

they are the second Swedish act in history to reach the top of the Billboard 200, following Ace Of Base's The Sign in 1993

I was gobsmacked you didn't say Abba

[TaylorSwift 162,293]

1 minute ago, Bronco said:

I was gobsmacked you didn't say Abba

their 2021 album 'Voyage' debuted at #2, the rest didn't even make it to the top 10.