In the top 10, R&B singer Summer Walker bows at No.2 with her debut album, Over it, and country singer Brantley Gilbert starts at No.9 with Fire and Brimstone.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units. Units are comprised of traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). The new Oct. 19-dated chart where SuperM debuts at No. 1 will be posted in full on Billboard's websites on Oct. 15.
SuperM's existence was announced on Aug. 7, and the act comprises seven members from established pop acts that have had some success already on Billboard's various charts: one from SHINee, and two each from EXO, NCT 127 and WayV.
SuperM's The 1st Mini Album starts with 168,000 units, and of that sum, 164,000 were in album sales. The rest of the album's first-week comprised less than 1,000 TEA units, and a little over 3,000 SEA units and the latter sum equates to 4.9 million on-demand audio streams during the tracking week for the seven tracks.
SuperM's handsome start was encouraged mightily by an array of permutations in which to purchase the album, which was likely very appealing to the group's fans since K-pop fans are often passionate about buying collectible physical packages of an album. The 1st Mini Album had more than 60 merchandise bundles available to purchase through their official web stores, a concert ticket/album sale redemption offer with their upcoming arena tour.
At No.2 on the new Billboard 200, Summer Walker's debut studio effort, Over It, launches with 134,000 equivalent album units earned the biggest week for an R&B album by a female artist in over three years.
Over It's starting sum of 134,000 units was largely powered by streaming activity, as the set garnered 14,000 album sales, 1,000 TEA units and 119,000 SEA units. The latter figure translates to a big 154.7 million on-demand audio streams for the album's songs marking the largest streaming week ever for an R&B album by a woman in terms of on-demand audio streams surpassing the debut week of Beyoncé's Lemonade, with 115.2 million.
Brantley Gilbert earns his fourth top 10 effort, as Fire & Brimstone debuts at No. 9 with 36,000 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum, 28,000 were in album sales. He previously visited the top 10 with The Devil Don't Sleep No. 2 in 2017, Just As I Am No. 2, 2014 and Halfway to Heaven No.1 in 2011.
