Sabrina Carpenter has secured the biggest opening week for an album by an international artist in the UK so far this year.
Man’s Best Friend (Polydor) debuted at the summit with consumption of 85,305 units (12,911 CDs, 27,178 vinyl albums, 7,214 cassettes, 825 digital downloads and 37,177 sales-equivalent streams). That was a similar performance to last year’s Short ’N Sweet album, which managed 89,658 in its opening frame.
Man’s Best Friend also outsold the No.2 album by a margin of more than five to one and the rest of the Top 10 combined. As well as surpassing the 55,000 units for Mayhem by Carpenter’s fellow US artist Lady Gaga, Man’s Best Friend had the second highest weekly consumption of 2025, behind only the 107,124 start made by Sam Fender’s People Watching (also via Polydor) earlier this year.
The new release helped Short N’ Sweet, which has topped the albums chart on five separate occasions, return to the Top 10 after a three-week absence. Its consumption increased by 3.92% week-on-week to 7,262 units as it moved 13-8.
Carpenter’s fifth album, Emails I Can’t Send, surged into the Top 30 for the first time, leaping from No.134 to No.21 (4,119 sales) following the release of a deluxe expanded vinyl edition.
Sabrina’s artistry and connection with her audience just keeps growing
Jodie Cammidge
As revealed in Alan Jones’ charts analysis, Short N’ Sweet sold as many copies in its first year on release as the next two biggest albums (Time Flies 1994-2009 by Oasis and +-=÷× Tour Collection by Ed Sheeran) combined in the same time frame. It has now raised its to-date tally to 797,931 units, while Emails I Can’t Send raises its total to 227,030.
The release of Carpenter’s album has also helped the US star to land two new Top 10 singles – Tears at No.3 (55,488 units) and My Man On Willpower at No.7 (34,073 units). Previous No.1 Manchild rebounded 26-4 with consumption of 42,185, a week-on-week increase of 240.1%.
But for chart rules limiting primary artists to three entries, Carpenter would have had 11 entries in the Top 20, based on raw streaming data.
Jodie Cammidge, managing director, Polydor Label Group, said: “Sabrina is having an extraordinary year, and we’re delighted to see Man’s Best Friend debut at No.1 with the biggest opening week for an international artist in 2025 so far as well as having three songs in the Top 10.
“Sabrina’s artistry and connection with her audience just keeps growing, and this campaign shows the strength of PLG’s global vision in supporting her success. We are so proud to be a part of it alongside her incredible management team at Volara and the entire Island Records US crew.”
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