It should come as little surprise Beyoncé has roped in the biggest album debut of 2024 so far, with her highly-anticipated “Cowboy Carter” debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart.
The genre-crossing project arrived with a huge 407,000 equivalent album units earned, according to luminate data. This is Beyoncé’s eighth No. 1 album and her largest sales week since her cultural reset “Lemonade” in 2016.
“Cowboy Carter’s” unit sum is powered by 232,000 streaming equivalent albums from a record-breaking 300.41 million official streams for the week. Traditional album sales comprise another 168,000 units, while track equivalent albums tally 7,000.
Notably, the limited edition vinyl pressings – which controversially omitted five album tracks available on streaming – still moved an impressive 62,000 copies. This represents Beyoncé’s biggest sales week for vinyl and the largest overall for any vinyl release in 2024 so far.
With her latest chart-topping effort, Beyoncé makes history as the first Black woman to debut at No. 1 on both the flagship Billboard 200 and the Top Country Albums charts concurrently. “Cowboy Carter” eclipses Taylor Swift’s “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” for the highest country album sales week since July 2022.
The pop icon’s eighth Billboard 200 leader also allows her to surpass Janet Jackson for the fourth-most No. 1 albums among women. Only Madonna (9), Barbra Streisand (11), and leader Taylor Swift (12) have more.
From her groundbreaking musical fusion to her record-breaking numbers, “Cowboy Carter” cements Beyoncé’s undisputed status as a trailblazing force transcending genres and shattering industry milestones. The Queen continues to reign supreme on her own terms.
