‘Sevens’ Album Sales Exceptional

Garth Brooks’ new album, “Sevens,” sold a phenomenal 897,000 copies in its first week of release, making it the top-selling album to debut this year and the second-best opener of all time, according to SoundScan figures provided by Brooks’ label, Capitol Nashville.

“Sevens,” the country superstar’s seventh studio release, easily passed the previous 1997 first-week sales leaders: the Notorious B.I.G.’s “Life After Death,” which sold 690,000 copies in its first week; Wu-Tang Clan’s “Wu-Tang Forever” (612,000); and Puff Daddy & the Family’s “No Way Out” (560,862).

Brooks scored the second-best debut-week sales since SoundScan’s introduction in 1991. He trails only Pearl Jam, whose 1993 release “Vs.” holds the record at 950,000 copies sold. Only three other albums have passed 800,000 in first-week sales: Pearl Jam’s “Vitalogy” (877,000); the Beatles’ “Anthology I” (855,000); and Snoop Doggy Dogg’s “Doggy Style” (803,000).

Brooks has sold an astonishing 63 million albums since his 1989 debut, third-most behind the Beatles and Led Zeppelin.