Linkin Park Score Narrow Victory Over Maroon 5 for No. 1 Album
If you love Linkin Park and are really tired of hearing Adam Levine croon about that payphone in a falsetto voice, then now is your time to celebrate: The Cali alt-rockers eked out a Billboard 200 victory over Maroon 5 for their new records' respective chart debuts.
Linkin Park's Living Things sold 223,000 copies in its first week and Maroon 5's Overexposed followed close behind with 222,000 units moved. Both are very respectable tallies for albums released in 2012: Numerous artists this year scored No. 1 albums and didn't sell more than 100,000 copies in their first week (Adam Lambert topped the charts with 77,000). But apparently there are a few more people (1,219 to be exact) who favor Linkin Park these days.
Living Things is the fifth Linkin Park album to hit No. 1, while Overexposed's slot mirrors the No. 2 peak of their last record, Hands All Over (which was released before the chart-topping single "Moves Like Jagger" and Levine's stint on The Voice moved the long-running rock outfit into a whole new level of celebrity).
As for the No. 3 spot, Justin Bieber's Believe—obviously—took that honor with 115,000 units. Chances are good Beliebers will be keeping JB's third full-length in the Top 5 of the Billboard 200 for some time to come.
46m
20m
23m
8m
21m
21m
1m
22m
21m
20m
47m
1h 21m
20m
44m
22m
44m
21m
42s
44s
1h 23m
24m
20m
7m
2m
1m
5m
5m
5m
6m
55s
1h 21m
1m
20m
1m
1m
41s
1m
5m
2m
23m
42m
2m
8m
3m
3m
1m
2m
5m
2m
5m
5m
1m
2m
1m
1m
1m
1m
1m
30s
59m
2m
22m
22m
12m
11m
21m
15m
22m
20m
44m
9m
20m
10m
13m
22m
14m
3m
4m
2m
23m
11m
1h 11m
1m
1h 21m
41m
57s
2m
20m
45m
20m
2m
44m
5m
22m
40m
10m
40m
21m
41m
1h 2m