HDIGH? ties Faith in the Future for top album sales but below Walls for Billboard 200 with 21.1K purchases (behind Megadeth’s 68.5K) and 4.4K streams
Louis Tomlinson’s new solo album How Did I Get Here? debuts on several Billboard charts in America this week, and its performance is somewhat mixed when compared to his past projects. On two of the three tallies, How Did I Get Here? returns the former One Direction pop star to his loftiest position yet. At the same time, the full-length brings him to a career low he’s never seen before on what is often considered the most important albums roster in the United States.
How Did I Get Here? nearly conquers both the Top Album Sales and Vinyl Albums charts, but it misses out on doing so by just one space. How Did I Get Here? launches in the runner-up rung, tying Tomlinson’s most impressive showing.
Several years ago, Tomlinson’s sophomore solo set, Faith in the Future, immediately became his highest-rising project on both the Top Album Sales and Vinyl Albums charts. That studio effort launched at No. 2 and then quickly began to backtrack. Tomlinson ties that position and narrowly fails to score his first leader.
The same full-length beats Tomlinson to the summit on Billboard’s rankings of the bestselling albums, regardless of format, and the top-selling vinyl releases in the U.S. Megadeth’s final release, a self-titled album, launches at No. 1 on both the Top Album Sales and Vinyl Albums rankings.
Tomlinson scores his third top 10 blockbuster on those two rankings with How Did I Get Here? Previously, his first two full-lengths, Walls and Faith in the Future, spent short stints inside the uppermost region. On the Top Album Sales list, Walls kicked off its time at No. 4, while it narrowly snuck into the top 10 on the Vinyl Albums chart, where it spent a single turn at No. 10.
How Did I Get Here? marks one of Tomlinson’s most successful releases on two sales lists in America, while at the same time it is already his worst performer on the Billboard 200. That ranking details the most consumed EPs and full-lengths in the country, and while sales and purchases play a role in where a musician debuts, so too do streams.
How Did I Get Here? earns Tomlinson his third appearance on the Billboard 200, and it is his first to miss out on the top 10. Walls brought him to the competitive list for the first time back in 2020, when it launched at No. 9 and then slipped off the roster entirely the following frame. Several years later, Faith in the Future debuted at No. 5, and it held on for two stints.
According to Luminate, the company that tracks both sales and streaming data throughout the United States for the music industry, and which then shares all that information with Billboard so it can compile the weekly charts, How Did I Get Here? moved 25,500 equivalent units during its initial tracking period in the nation. Of those, 21,100 were actual purchases. It’s clear that fans of the English pop singer preferred to buy How Did I Get Here? rather than listen to it on streaming sites.
While How Did I Get Here? only misses the summit on the Top Album Sales chart by one space, there was no real competition for who would lead the way this week. Megadeth opens with 68,500 copies sold, more than three times as many as Tomlinson’s latest.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2026/02/08/louis-tomlinson-misses-his-first-no-1-album-in-america-by-one-spot/
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