Metallica topped Metal Insider's half-year analysis of heavy music album sales with their most recent LP, Hardwired … to Self-Destruct.

Still, the record has sold only 136,000 copies in the first six months of 2018, compared to 291,000 during its first week of release two years ago.

The thrash icons led Bon Jovi, Breaking Benjamin, Greta Van Fleet and A Perfect Circle in the figures breakdown. Metal Insider, which compiles its Metal by Numbers chart every week, described the six-month period as “brutal in terms of sales.”

“There’s only one album that’s sold more than a million copies, and that’s the soundtrack to The Greatest Showman." they reported. "The 10th biggest-selling album, by Imagine Dragons, hasn’t even sold 175,000 yet. … The year is already off to a solid start, however, and while there are still plenty of older titles in here, a solid amount have been released this year so far.”

Both Metallica and Bon Jovi’s figures included album sales that were tied into concert ticket purchased – an exercise that pushed Hardwired back to No.2. The scheme also saw Bon Jovi’s This House Is Not For Sale return to No.1 before plummeting back to No.168 the following week.

Metal Insider hailed Greta Van Fleet as a “group of Zeppelin-worshiping kids” who were “keeping rock music alive in a world where guitar-based music has fallen out of fashion with people their age.” The site also noted that Ghost’s latest album, Prequelle, was listed only on its first week of sales and would probably be listed “a lot higher” by the end of the year.

The statistics revealed that, among the 100 best-selling albums in the world, 15 were heavy music records, with three of them by Metallica. Only six of them were released in 2018. You can see the Top 20 Heavy Music albums below.

Heavy Music 2018 Half-Year Sales Chart Top 20
*denotes 2018 release
1. Metallica – Hardwired… to Self-Destruct – 136,000 (No.22 in overall music charts)
2. Bon Jovi – This House is Not For Sale – 131,000 (No.25)
3. Breaking Benjamin – Ember – 117,500 (No.30)*
4. Greta Van Fleet – From the Fires – 98,000 (No.37)
5. A Perfect Circle – Eat the Elephant – 94,000 (No.40)*
6. Five Finger Death Punch – A Decade of Destruction – 87,300 (No.42)
7. Metallica – Metallica – 87,000 (No.43)
8. Judas Priest – Firepower – 84,000 (No.47)*
9. Five Finger Death Punch – And Justice for None – 82,500 (No.48)*
10. Shinedown – Attention Attention – 80,500 (No.50)*
11. Ghost – Prequelle – 62,000 (No.67)*
12. Godsmack – When Legends Rise – 60,000 (No.71)*
13. Kid Rock – Sweet Southern Sugar – 59,500 (No.76)
14. Metallica – Master of Puppets – 58,500 (No.77)
15. Linkin Park – Hybrid Theory – 49,000 (No.99)
16. Guns N’ Roses – Appetite for Destruction – 43,500 (No.113)
17. Nightwish – Decades – 41,250 (No.122)*
18. Guns N’ Roses – Greatest Hits – 41,150 (No.123)
19. Metallica – …And Justice For All – 40,500 (No.124)
20. Nickelback – All the Right Reasons – 39,000 (No.130)

 

 

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