It's Taylor Swift who sits at the throne on the Billboard 200, despite new releases The Game and Bruno Mars.
While Swift's RED album stays at #1, Mars' Unorthodox Jukebox album bows at #2, selling 192,000 to start, his best sales week to date. His 2010 debut, Doo-Wops & Hooligans, opened at #3 with 84,000.
A few notches down, Game's new album, Jesus Piece, debuts at #6 with 86,000. It's his lowest charting album to date, but his fifth top 10 effort. On the LP, the Compton rapper reunites with Kanye West on the title track, while Wiz Khalifa, Tyga, Lil Wayne, and many others serve as guests.
Alicia Keys' Girl On Fire falls 7-9 with 61,000; and Rihanna's Unapologetic closes out the top 20 at #14 with 51,000 sold as it nears gold sales.
Outside the top tier, Big Boi opens at #33 with his new solo album, Vicious Lies And Dangerous Rumors, which sells 30,000 to start. It features an array of out-of-genre acts, including Little Dragon, Phantogram and Wavves.
That wraps things up this week. To cop any of these new releases, head over to Amazon.com.
According to Billboard.com, overall album sales in this past chart week (ending Dec. 16) totaled 9.71 million units, up 15% compared with the sum last week (8.45 million) and down 13% compared with the comparable sales week of 2011 (11.20 million). Year-to-date album sales stand at 293.47 million, down 5% compared with the same total at this point last year (307.75 million).
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