AC/DC’s New Album ‘Power Up’ Smashes Billboard Charts + Hits No. 1
AC/DC's brand new album, Power Up, has been climbing the charts worldwide. The record already ascended to No. 1 in eight countries across Europe and the U.K. and now the latest from the rock powerhouse has reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart as well.
After being released on Nov. 13, Power Up soared to No. 1 on the strength of 117,000 equivalent album units earned in the United States for the week ending Nov. 19. Of that figure, a whopping 111,000 came directly from album sales while another 5,000 album equivalent units were earned through on-demand streams (Billboard puts this at 7.8 million song streams from Power Up) as well as an additional 1,000 total equivalent units.
For AC/DC, this is just their third No. 1 debut on the Billboard 200. The first milestone came in 1981 with the release of the Back in Black follow-up, For Those About to Rock We Salute You. The Australian group later reprised their No. 1 slot in 2008 when Black Ice came out before finally mounting the summit once more this year.
Billboard also noted that the 111,000 album sales was good enough for AC/DC to land the biggest sales week for a rock record in 2020.
Despite Machine Gun Kelly's pop-punk album, Tickets to My Downfall, totaling 126,000 album equivalent units in its respective debut week, only 63,000 came from physical album sales, which is why AC/DC have the edge in the aforementioned achievement.
Power Up is the first release from AC/DC since 2014's Rock or Bust and is also the first from the band since the death of long-standing rhythm guitarist Malcolm Young in 2017.
Congratulations to AC/DC on another career highlight!
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