Despite Katy Perry’s new single “Roar” selling more downloads in a week than any other song this year, it wasn’t enough to beat Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” on the Billboard Hot 100.
While Perry’s single was leaked online days before its official release date, it still managed to sell 577,000 copies in its first week, making it the best week for a single since Taylor Swifts “I Knew You Were Trouble” sold 582,000 copies.
Since the amount of online streaming, sales and airplay of a song is incorporated into determining whether a song will make it onto Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, “Roar” will have to settle for second, while Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” is still getting massive spins on the radio and plays online. It is the 11th straight week the single has remained at the top of the chart.
With “Blurred Lines” being down by 9% and “Roar” skyrocketing by 1,262%, the two songs are separated by only a 3.3% difference in overall chart points. While the airplay for “Blurred Lines” remains consistent, sales and online streaming continues to decline. In fact, with airplay, online streaming and sales expected to rise, “Roar” should overtake “Blurred Lines” on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart in no time.