One Direction Makes History With Third No. 1 Album on Billboard 200

One Direction has made history by becoming the first band to debut at No. 1 with their first three albums in Nielsen SoundScan history. The band’s third album, Midnight Memories, debuted at the top of the Billboard 200 chart this week with 546,000 copies sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

The group’s previous two albums, Up All Night and Take Me Home, each debuted at No. 1 on the chart in 2012.  First week sales for One Direction have also increased with each successive album, showing that the band is still growing in popularity. Their first album Up All Night sold 176,000 its first week, and their sophomore album Take Me Home saw a huge increase with a debut of 540,000.

The last group to have their first three albums hit No.1 on the charts were The Monkees back in 1967.  Due to their success, One Direction now joins the company of *N Sync and Backstreet Boys to become the only pop groups that have sold more than 500,000 copies in multiple weeks since Nielsen Soundscan began tracking sales in 1991.