No surprise here... Kanye West and Nicki Minaj arrive in the top two spots, respectively. West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy sold 496,000 copies for the top spot. Minaj's Pink Friday moved 375,000 copies.
West's 496,000 gives him his fourth straight No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 and the fourth-best sales week of 2010. It's also a better launch than the 450,000 copies that greeted his last LP, 2008's 808s & Heartbreak.
Minaj collected the second-best sales week for a female hip-hop act. Only Lauryn Hill has done better, when The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill started at No. 1 with 423,000 in 1998.
This week marks the first time in two years that the Billboard 200 has seen two albums debut with more than 300,000 units. It last happened on the list dated Dec. 6, 2008, when Beyoncé's I Am... Sasha Fierce started at No. 1 with 482,000 while Nickelback's Dark Horse debuted at No. 2 with 326,000.
Justin Bieber's Wal-Mart and Sam's Club-exclusive set, My Worlds Acoustic, debuted in seventh with 115,000 copies sold.
My Chemical Romance's Danger Days: the True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys bowed in eighth on 112,000, while Ne-Yo's Libra Scale entered in ninth on 112,000 copies (just a hair behind My Chemical Romance). It's the fourth release from the singer/songwriter, but it's his lowest debut sales week.
Here are the Top 10 albums for the week ending Sunday:
1. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Kanye West: 496,000 copies
2. Pink Friday, Nicki Minaj: 375,000 copies
3. The Gift, Susan Boyle: 263,000 copies
4. Speak Now, Taylor Swift: 241,000 copies
5. O Holy Night (EP), Jackie Evancho: 142,000 copies
6. Loud, Rihanna: 141,000 copies
7. My Worlds Acoustic, Justin Bieber: 115,000 copies
8. Danger Days: the True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, My Chemical Romance: 112,000 copies
9. Libra Scale, Ne-Yo, Libra Scale: 112,000 copies
10. Glee: The Music, The Christmas Album, Glee Cast: 108,000 copies
~Papi Chulo~