Hamilton Becomes The Highest Charting Cast Recording Album Since 1969
Hamilton is very popular. We know this. And Hamilton is becoming only more popular (and sparking up more conversations) since the recorded version of the musical arrived on Disney+ earlier this month. Billboard has just released its latest album chart and the Hamilton cast recording has shot up to the #2 spot, a new peak for the album. The album had 102,000 equivalent album units this week; 32,000 of those were in album sales. That’s up 294% and 592% respectively from what it clocked the previous week when it was #14 on the chart.
The new peak breaks and challenges quite a few Billboard records. It’s now the highest-charting cast recording since 1969, when Hair spent 13 weeks at #1. Previously, it had been tied with The Book Of Mormon at a #3 peak, which Hamilton reached in 2016 right after the Tony Awards where it won in 11 categories, including Best Musical.
The Hamilton cast recording has spent 250 consecutive weeks on the chart, second only to The Phantom Of The Opera recording, which had 331 weeks on the list between 1990 and 1996. It’s climb to #2 represents the slowest climb to the top two ever without falling off the chart — it’s spent every week since it was released almost 5 years ago somewhere on there.
Hamilton is among a group of only six cast recordings that have sold over 32,000 copies in a single week since electronic tracking began in 1991. (Hamilton has done this six times now; this is just its latest.) The five other recordings are: The Book Of Mormon, Rent, The Phantom Of The Opera and then the Phantom Highlights edition, and Springsteen On Broadway. In total, the Hamilton cast recording has sold 1.97 million copies.
Hamilton was beat out for the top spot on the charts by Pop Smoke’s posthumous release Shoot For The Stars Aim For The Moon, which debuted with 251,000 equivalent album units, making for the sixth-biggest week of any album in 2020. In #3 is Lil Baby’s My Turn, which fell from #1, followed by DaBaby’s Blame It On Baby and Post Malone’s Hollywood Bleeding. A full rundown of the top 10 is here.