Photo of Chris Stapleton by Becky Fluke
After six weeks outside the top 200 albums in the U.S., Chris Stapleton's debut Traveller has shot up to No. 1 thanks to huge, breakout wins at last week's CMA Awards.
According to Nielsen Music, the album shifted a massive 177,000 equivalent album units, 153,000 of which were pure, non-streaming album sales (up 6,412 percent from 2,000 last week).
As Billboard points out, the record sold more this week than it has in total since it released in May, with 96,000 copies sold through Oct. 29.
Stapleton arguably won the night at the CMAs, taking home trophies for Album of the Year, Male Vocalist of the Year and New Artist of the Year, before performing the Traveller version of “Tennessee Whiskey” and Justin Timberlake’s “Drink You Away," alongside Timberlake himself.
In addition to this explosive sales week, industry forecasters are projecting Traveller will likely remain on top for another round, possibly moving another 100,000 units this week.