Sabrina Carpenter, Travis Scott Lead the Billboard 200 Chart

It was a close race for the number-one spot on the Billboard 200 albums chart for the tracking week that ended August 29, and it came down to the slimmest of margins. Sabrina Carpenter emerged victorious, debuting on top and achieving her best week ever with 362,000 equivalent album units based on combined album sales, individual track sales, and online streams.

This is Carpenter’s sixth studio album, but none of her previous efforts came anywhere near this level of success. Her previous personal best was her last album, 2022’s “Emails I Can’t Send,” which launched and peaked at number-23 with just 18,000 units, though that collection was eventually certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). This career breakthrough was expected after she ruled the Hot 100 singles chart with her breakout hits “Espresso” and “Please Please Please.”

Travis Scott was a close second with the first official commercial release of his 2014 mixtape “Days Before Rodeo.” A very close second. “Rodeo” achieved 361,000 units, falling just about 1,000 shy of Carpenter’s total. These two monster debuts knocked Post Malone’s “F-1 Trillion” down two spots to number-three with 111,000 units. Next was Chappell Roan’s “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” with 72,000 units. Rounding out the top five was Morgan Wallen’s “One Thing at a Time” with 58,000 units.

In our weekly Billboard 200 predictions contest, most participants were right that “Short n’ Sweet” would take the number-one spot, though we underestimated how well it would do. The consensus was that it would achieve between 150,000 and 199,999 units, with only one person correctly predicting she would rack up 300,000 or more. “Days Before Rodeo” wasn’t in our predictions center this week — its release wasn’t announced until August 18 — but three savvy players correctly predicted “None of These” for the number-two spot.

Only eight anticipated “F-1 Trillion” at number-three. However, most got “Midwest Princess” right at number-four, and the majority picked “One Thing at a Time” at number-five. Ultimately, four players got four out of six prediction questions correct.

Source: Billboard