Chris Stapleton Surpasses Even More Album Sales Milestones

Photo: Andy Barron
Photo: Andy Barron

Chris Stapleton’s torrid sales pace continues, and is now stretching to almost two calendar years where the country star has single-handedly dominated the Billboard Country Albums chart. Along with being a perennial name at the top of the chart, Chris Stapleton’s last two records have just surpassed significant sales plateaus.

Stapleton’s debut record Traveller has now sold over 2 million copies (2.05 million to be exact), after recently experiencing a resurgence on top of its already strong sales performance due to the release of Stapleton’s sophomore record From ‘A’ Room: Vol. 1 in May. The new album has also just surpassed a significant barrier itself, now posting over 500,000 copies sold. With accumulated streams, From ‘A’ Room had already been Certified Gold by the RIAA in June, becoming the first record released in country in 2017 to do so. Traveller has now been officially certified Double Platinum—a distinction unheard of in the streaming era of music, especially for a country star.

But there is one interesting wrinkle to Chris Stapleton’s continued sales dominance. A few weeks ago, weekly sales numbers for 2015’s Traveller began to surpass those for his latest record From ‘A’ Room. This means that listeners are favoring the old record over the new one—a phenomenon not regularly seen in the album release cycle. Of course, nothing about Chris Stapleton’s album sales are of the norm. What that might mean for From ‘A’ Room, Vol. 2, which was promised initially to be released some time later this year but has yet to receive a release date, remains to be seen.

However, the fact that Stapleton very consistently has two titles at the top of the Country Album Sales chart may mean that when From ‘A’ Room Vol. 2 is released, he could have three records all at the top of the chart simultaneously. This would put Stapleton in the rare company of Garth Brooks as an artist who’s pulled off such a feat.

Also showing strong sales and curious strength at the top of the Country Albums chart is Luke Combs and his debut major label release, This One’s For You. Years of paying dues and building up a fan base have resulted in the young songwriter showing surprising strength in post-release sales, and challenging Chris Stapleton for the top spot on most weeks.

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