Sabrina Carpenter’s album “Short n’ Sweet” topped this week’s Billboard 200 albums chart, winning an exceptionally close chart battle with rapper Travis Scott in which both artists released multiple limited-edition digital versions of their albums in eleventh hour efforts to boost sales.
Sabrina Carpenter's "Short n' Sweet" edged out Travis Scott's "Days Before Rodeo" mixtape in a close ... [+]
Carpenter’s album debuted at No. 1 with 362,000 album equivalent units, composed of sales and streams, in its opening week—just 1,000 ahead of Scott’s 10th anniversary re-release of his mixtape “Days Before Rodeo,” which totaled 361,000 units.
Fans eagerly anticipated the announcement of the chart battle winner, which took longer than usual: Billboard typically announces the Billboard 200 top 10 on Sunday, but announced this week’s chart winner Tuesday afternoon.
Carpenter bested Scott on streaming: “Short n’ Sweet” totaled 233 million on-demand streams, Billboard reported, marking the fourth-largest streaming week for an album in 2024, while Scott earned 40.63 million on-demand streams.
Scott, however, topped Carpenter in pure album sales, selling 331,000 albums—the second-biggest sales week of the year—ahead of Carpenter’s 184,000 albums sold.
“Short n’ Sweet” is Carpenter’s first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200, surpassing her previous career-best peak of No. 23 for her 2022 album “Emails I Can’t Send.”
Carpenter also notched three songs in the top five of this week’s Billboard Hot 100: “Taste,” “Please Please Please” and “Espresso” rank No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4, respectively.
Carpenter and Scott both ramped up their promotional efforts in the final days—and even the final minutes—of the sales tracking week, which ended Thursday night. Music industry trade publication Hits Daily Double reported last week Carpenter led the race for No. 1 by a healthy margin, with a projected 317,000 album units, ahead of a projected 217,000 units for Scott, but said Scott could surprise for a No. 1 debut. On Wednesday, the second-to-last day of the tracking week, Carpenter released a new digital version of her album featuring an exclusive bonus track, followed by another digital edition featuring a different bonus track the following day. Two hours before the tracking week ended, Carpenter released another edition of her album featuring a demo version of her song “Taste.” Scott dropped six editions of his album on the final day of the chart tracking week, Billboard reported, including four different editions with exclusive bonus tracks, a live edition and a “chopped and screwed” version with remixes. Scott released the final edition of his album just over 30 minutes before the end of the tracking week.
Carpenter’s opening week total of 362,000 album units is the third-largest opening week for an album this year, only after Taylor Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department,” which moved 2.61 million album units in its opening week, and Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter,” which totaled 407,000 units in its first week. Scott claimed the fourth-biggest opening week with “Days Before Rodeo.” Both Carpenter and Scott surpassed Billie Eilish’s opening week total of 339,000 units for her album “Hit Me Hard And Soft.”
Carpenter and Scott both enjoyed support from different artists as they competed for No. 1. Taylor Swift posted Carpenter’s album on her Instagram story on Aug. 23, the day it was released, calling it “extraordinary” and urging her fans to “go support our girl.” Carpenter previously opened for Swift’s Eras Tour dates in Latin America, Australia and Singapore. On Thursday night, Carpenter tweeted “this one’s for nicki”—a likely reference to rapper Nicki Minaj’s heated Billboard chart battle with Scott in 2018, which Scott ultimately won when his album “Astroworld” bested Minaj’s “Queen.” Minaj responded later that night, giving Carpenter and her fans a shoutout on her Instagram Live. Scott received support from Kanye West, who posted a link to his album on his Instagram story Thursday night.
Sabrina Carpenter And Travis Scott Fight For No. 1 Album—And Why Nicki Minaj Is Involved (Forbes)
Sabrina Carpenter’s ‘Short n’ Sweet’ Debuts at No. 1 on Billboard 200 (Billboard)