We’ll cover this more later in the week, but Linkin Park’s One More Light, the band’s seventh album, has debuted at #1, the sixth time that’s happened for the band. The album sold 111,000 copies total, 100,000 of them in pure album sales. Billboard reports that’s the lowest first week of sales for the band since Hybrid Theory. However, the album sold more than it was initially expected to, which was around 90,000 copies. While their last album, The Hunting Party, also sold 110,000 copies its first week, that was before track equivalent and streaming sales counted towards sales.
This is definitely Linkin Park’s most polarizing album. Many are finding the pop direction the band has gravitated towards for the new album jarring, and you’d be forgiven if you thought you were listening to the Chainsmokers. Chester Bennington was pretty defensive towards fans that just wanted Hybrid Theory again, saying he’d punch them. However, it appears that didn’t alienate too many fans, as it sold the same roughly as their last one. And Linkin Park join an elite group, according to Billboard:
Just nine rock bands in total have scored at least six No. 1 albums: The Beatles (with 19), The Rolling Stones (nine), Led Zeppelin and U2 (both with seven), and Bon Jovi, Dave Matthews Band, Eagles, Linkin Park and Metallica (all with six each).
