The official Soundscan numbers for 'Watch the Throne' are in and while impressive, fell short of some expectations...
From Billboard
Jay Z and Kanye West's "Watch the Throne" arrives, as expected, at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, selling 436,000 copies according to Nielsen SoundScan. It's the second-largest sales week of the year for an album, behind only the 1.1 million start of Lady Gaga's "Born This Way."
"Throne" was available exclusively through iTunes from Aug. 8-11 before going on sale at all digital and physical retailers on Friday, Aug. 12. SoundScan's tracking week ended on Sunday, Aug. 14.
"Throne" sold 321,000 downloads, marking the second-largest digital week ever, behind only the 662,000 moved by "Born This Way" in its first week earlier this year. While SoundScan does not disclose retailer-specific sales figures, sources say "Throne" broke iTunes' one-week sales record -- with nearly 290,000 digital copies sold through the retailer. ("Throne" surpassed the previous iTunes record, set when Coldplay's 2008 album "Viva La Vida Or Death and All His Friends" shifted 282,000 in its first week.)
Industry prognosticators had projected "Throne" was going to move more than 500,000 overall.
