Houston’s own Beyonce Knowles shocked the world on Friday when she unleashed her self-titled album Beyonce with no prior promotion. The move was a gutsy one that only an established musician could ever attempt, and it paid off in a BIG way. The singer’s fifth studio album has officially become the largest release of her career, selling 617,000 copies in only three days, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Up until the release of Beyonce, the diva’s largest release was her sophomore album B’Day. Thanks to the success of hits “Irreplaceable” and “Beautiful Liar,” B’Day opened to a stellar 541,000 copies sold in its first week in 2006. Following the performance of B’Day, Beyonce’s third album I Am . . . Sasha Fierce sold 482,000 copies in 2008 while her debut album Dangerously In Love sold 317,000 copies in 2003. Her last release, 2011’s 4, debuted with 310,000 copies sold.
Now that her self-titled album is officially #1, Beyonce is the first woman to ever have her first five albums reach the top of the Billboard 200. It must run in the family because her husband Jay Z knows a thing or two about number one albums as well. He’s released 13 #1 albums, the most of any solo act, and is second only to The Beatles, who have 19.
Globally Beyonce sold 828,773 copies on iTunes Store, the exclusive provider of the album until it releases in stores sometime between December 18 and 20. Even though the album did break iTunes records for ” largest sales week for an album in the U.S.” and “fastest-selling title globally,” sales were still not high enough to earn the album the title of biggest release of the year.
The year’s biggest release is still Justin Timberlake’s The 20/20 Experience with a debut of 968,000 copies sold first week. Eminem’s The Marshall Mathers LP 2 holds strong to second with 792,000 while Drake’s Nothing Was the Same sold 658,000 copies in North America. Beyonce is the fourth largest release of the year with 617,000 copies, even though it was only over a tracking period of three days.
Digitally the release was a phenomenal success and was second to only Lady Gaga’s Born This Way (662,000), although that number is slightly enhanced. To help promote Born This Way in 2011, Lady Gaga offered the album on Amazon for only 99 cents. According to Billboard, Amazon’s discounted version of resulted in 440,000 copies sold for Gaga. None of Beyonce’s 617,000 copies were sold at a discounted rate.
