Every week, I tweet about the impressive numbers Metallica's Black Album still puts up. On many weeks, it outsells new releases from big metal names.
Now, Billboard reports that the album is about to crack the 16 million sales mark.
This week, the album pushed 2,494 copies out the door, outselling new releases from In This Moment, Volbeat, Behemoth, and Pierce the Veil. Its cumulative total is 15,971,659 copies in the US. At its current pace, it will crack 16 million in about 3 months. That is an incredible accomplishment for the highest selling metal album of all time.
Who is still buying this album? There are only so many young Metallica fans, and are they really buying music? Do 2.5k Black Album casette tapes and CDs get busted every week causing the need for replacements? I'm genuinely curious!
Other Metallica chart movers this week:
…And Justice For All – 1,508 this week – 5,574,189 cumulative
Master of Puppets – 1,452 this week – 4,826,978 cumulative
Ride the Lightning – 1,334 this week – 4,548,490 cumulative
Kill 'Em All – 916 this week – 2,740,386 cumulative
