Adele, Beyoncé And Taylor Swift: Who Could Beat BTS’s Sales Record In 2020?

When BTS’s new album Map of the Soul: 7 debuted at No. 1 last month, it did so with a larger-than-expected first-frame figure. The set opened with 422,000 equivalent units, which held as the largest one-week sum of the year, but not for very long.

Just a few weeks later, The Weeknd’s After Hours took control of the Billboard 200 with 444,000 equivalent copies, and while the Canadian star did grab one title from the Korean band, he didn’t manage to sell quite as well. Map of the World: 7 actually sold 347,000 copies, while After Hours couldn’t hit 300,000. 

Depending on what is released in the next eight months, BTS could end 2020 with the greatest one-week sales count, although there are a few names who could beat them…but who are they?

Adele

The British superstar has been hinting that a new album is already in the works, and little bits of news have trickled out throughout the past few years. If a follow-up to her last title, which was released almost five years ago now, is coming in 2020, it will certainly beat BTS’s Map of the Soul, and it stands a good shot at ending the year as perhaps the bestselling title, even if it comes out just days before 2021 begins.

Adele’s last album 25 sold 3.38 million copies in its first seven days of availability, or almost 10 times as many copies as the K-pop septet’s new champion. 

Beyoncé

A handful of Beyoncé projects have missed the top spot in the last year or two (her Lion King soundtrack companion, her live recording and her joint effort with husband Jay-Z under the name The Carters), but her last proper studio album on her own was a massive seller. 2016’s Lemonade opened atop the Billboard 200 with over 650,000 equivalent units, almost half a million of which were pure sales. While she hasn’t come close to hitting that mark again, she possibly could with the right marketing strategy and a huge single, should she want one.

Drake

Like Beyoncé, Drake’s last several releases all performed well, but they weren’t major sellers (unlike Beyoncé, however, all of his sets have made it to No. 1). The last time the hip-hop superstar landed a huge sales win was back in 2016 (the same year Bey’s Lemonade ruled) with his blockbuster launch Views. That title moved just over one million equivalent copies upon its arrival, with over 850,000 of those being pure purchases. 

It’s unlikely Drake repeats that feat again, though it is certainly not impossible.

Jonas Brothers

When the Jonas Brothers returned last year after a lengthy hiatus, fans responded by snapping up copies of their comeback album Happiness Begins. The set produced their first No. 1 hit “Sucker” and the title sold 357,000 copies in its first frame, which was bolstered by a ticket bundling scheme. The trio has already released a new single, “What a Man Gotta Do,” which is assumed to be the first taste of a new full-length, and there’s a chance they could drop it in 2020.

Kendrick Lamar

One of the biggest rappers in the world, Kendrick Lamar has very little trouble reaching No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and when everything goes right, he can sell hundreds of thousands of albums in a single week as well. His last release, 2017’s Damn., opened with just over 350,000 sales, and demand for new tunes from the hip-hop giant is fierce, so there’s a possibility he could reach those heights again, and it wouldn’t be strange if he released a new album in 2020.

Another BTS

Known for being one of the fastest-working and most prolific groups producing music right now, BTS could potentially share another project later in 2020, as they have collected multiple No. 1s in a single calendar year before. Scoring a second No. 1 as large as Map of the Soul: 7 before January is not out of the question, though it does seem unlikely…but leave it up to BTS to beat all expectations.