Twenty One Pilots land the year’s biggest week for any rock album — and the largest in six years — as the duo’s new studio effort, Breach, bows at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 dated Sept. 27.
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The set is the act’s second leader and launches with 200,000 equivalent album units earned in the United States in the week ending Sept. 18, according to Luminate. That marks Twenty One Pilots’ best week ever and the biggest week for a rock album since Tool’s Fear Inoculum launched at No. 1 with 270,000 on the Sept. 14, 2019-dated chart. (Rock albums are defined as those that are eligible for, or have charted on, Billboard’s Top Rock Albums chart.)
The majority of Breach’s opening week was powered by traditional album sales, numbering 169,000 sold, which lands Twenty One Pilots its biggest sales week ever, and the biggest for any rock album in six years. The last rock set to sell more copies in a single week was Fear Inoculum, which sold 248,000 in its opening stanza.
Breach is Twenty One Pilots’ first No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in a little more than a decade, since Blurryface bowed at No. 1 on the June 6, 2015 chart. All told, Breach is the band’s fifth top 10, following Clancy (No. 3 in 2024), Scaled and Icy (No. 3, 2021), Trench (No. 2, 2018) and Blurryface.
Also in the top 10 of the latest Billboard 200, Ed Sheeran scores his eighth top 10 album as Play premieres at No. 5.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Sept. 27, 2025-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Sept. 23. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
Of Breach’s 200,000 first-week equivalent album units, album sales comprise 169,000 (it debuts at No. 1 on the Top Album Sales chart), SEA units comprise 31,000 (equaling 40.68 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs — the act’s best streaming week yet; it also debuts at No. 8 on Top Streaming Albums) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum.
Breach’s opening-week sales were bolstered by its availability across more than 15 vinyl variants, which sold a combined 72,000. That marks Twenty One Pilots’ best week ever on vinyl and the largest vinyl sales week for a rock album in the modern era (since Luminate began electronically tracking sales in 1991).
Breach was also issued on three deluxe CD editions in lavish packaging containing collectible ephemera, a standard widely available CD and digital download, along with a widely available deluxe digital download edition with the bonus track “Drag Path,” alternative cover art and a PDF booklet.
Breach was preceded by its first single, “The Contract,” which hit No. 1 on the Alternative Airplay chart dated Aug. 2, marking Twenty One Pilots’ 12th leader. The band kicked off its The Clancy Tour: Breach 2025 on Sept. 18 in Cincinnati, and the trek continues with dates in the U.S. and Canada through Oct. 26 in Los Angeles.
The KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack falls to No. 2 on the Billboard with 112,000 equivalent album units earned (down 12%) after reaching No. 1 for the first time a week ago. Morgan Wallen’s chart-topping I’m the Problem is a non-mover at No. 3 (97,000, down 2%) and Sabrina Carpenter’s former leader Man’s Best Friend dips 2-4 (88,000, down 26%).
Ed Sheeran scores his eighth top 10-charting album on the Billboard 200 as Play starts at No. 5 with 71,000 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum, album sales comprise 51,000 (it debuts at No. 2 on the Top Album Sales chart), SEA units comprise 19,000 (equaling 24.26 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs; it debuts at No. 23 on Top Streaming Albums) and TEA units comprise 1,000.
Play’s opening sales week was aided by its availability across more than 10 vinyl variants (one signed), four standard CD variants (two signed), two deluxe CD editions (with two bonus tracks, one signed), a deluxe CD boxed set containing a T-shirt and a signed CD, a standard streaming and digital download album, and a deluxe streaming and digital download album with five bonus tracks.
Play was previewed by the hit song “Azizam,” which reached the top 10 on Pop Airplay, Adult Pop Airplay and Adult Contemporary, and No. 28 on the Billboard Hot 100 (Sheeran’s 26th top 40-charted hit).
Justin Bieber’s SWAG shifts 4-6 on the Billboard 200 (44,000 equivalent album units, down 45%); Alex Warren’s You’ll Be Alright, Kid falls 5-7 (36,000, down 4%); SZA’s chart-topping SOS is down 6-8 (a little more than 33,000, up less than 1%); Wallen’s former No. 1 One Thing at a Time descends 7-9 (33,000, up 1%); and sombr’s I Barely Know Her is steady at No. 10 (29,000, up less than 1%).
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.
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