Weekly Register: Country Claims Top 3 Spots on Overall Albums Chart

Six months after its release, Chris Stapleton’s Traveller rockets to No. 1 on the country album chart – and the overall album chart. Thanks to a boost from the CMA Awards, country artists hold the first three positions on this week’s overall album chart.

Following three victories at the CMA Awards last week and an incredible performance with Justin Timberlake during the show, Stapleton sold 153K albums – way, way up from 2.3K last week. With a combined total of 177K units, he also leads the overall chart, which accounts for single sales and streaming.

Carrie Underwood’s Storyteller drops one spot on the country album chart, landing at No. 2 with 73K sold. Eric Church’s unexpected Mr. Misunderstood makes a bow at No. 3 with 71K. They land in the same positions on the overall chart.

Eric Church’s Mr. Misunderstood album.

Chris Janson’s Buy Me a Boat sails into the No. 4 slot on the country album chart in its first week with 18.5K sold.

Other debuts include LoCash’s I Love This Life (No. 38), Now Country Christmas (No. 59), Josh Ward’s Holding Me Together (No. 60), and Rhonda Vincent’s Christmas Time (No. 64).

On the overall digital singles chart, Stapleton’s “Tennessee Whiskey” (which he performed on the CMA Awards) arrives at No. 2 with 131K sold. Meanwhile, Adele’s “Hello” is still crushing the competition with 635K singles sold.

Thomas Rhett maintains the No. 2 spot on the country digital single sales chart with “Die a Happy Man” (62K). Little Big Town’s “Girl Crush” races to No. 3 with a 604 percent increase in sales and 48K singles sold. “Girl Crush” won CMA Awards for Single and Song of the Year, while Little Big Town picked up the Vocal Group award.

Other new faces in the Top 10 singles tally are Cole Swindell’s “Should’ve Ran After You” (No. 7, 30K), Kane Brown’s “Last Minute Late Night” (No. 9, 26K) and Stapleton’s “Traveller” (No. 10, 25K). Six other Stapleton songs land among the top 100 digital country singles chart.

Also new to the chart are Justin Moore’s “You Look Like I Need a Drink” (No. 14, 20K), Eric Church’s “Mr. Misunderstood” (No. 16, 18K), and CMA vocal duo winners Florida Georgia Line’s “Confession” (No. 31, 11K).

Information provided by Neilsen Soundscan.