This is interesting. First week sales are still not that different from what they were when albums sold much better years ago, it's overall totals and the longevity of albums which is the issue. I mean On the 6 and ...Baby One More Time debuted with less than Yours Truly, but they wound up selling 10x more and 40x more respectively
This makes sense, considering singles typically sell digital singles now more than albums, which they used to sell much more effectively.
Released in the U.S. on Nov. 7, 2000, "Parachutes" jumped to No. 1 on Billboard's Heatseekers chart in the Jan. 13 issue, and is now at No. 68 on The Billboard 200.
I can't find the first week numbers. FYI, Coldplay's debut album Parachutes ended up selling over 2.7M in the US. Now this is what we call longevity. It peaked at #51
Starting an archive for US first-week sales for debut albums only. Obviously, this list will be expanded, but post anything you see missing (with receipt, please).
Ashanti - Ashanti - 503,000 (2002)
Britney Spears - ...Baby One More Time - 121,000 (1999)
