Mumford & Sons' new record, Babel, is on pace to sell 600,000 copies in its first week out, making it the top-selling record of the year thus far. The record that holds the title currently, Justin Bieber’s Believe, sold just 374,000 copies in its debut week.
The numbers would also make Babel the rock record with the biggest opening week since AC/DC’s 2008 record Black Ice. And, if all goes as projected and the record sells 400,000 digital copies, it will also be the second-biggest digital seller ever, behind Lady Gaga’s Born This Way. A large chunk of Gaga’s sales were driven by an Amazon deal pricing the album at just 99 cents for two days during release week.
As Consequence Of Sound points out, all this is even more impressive considering the record hit the same week as new LPs from two other rock heavy-hitters, Green Day and No Doubt. Green Day is projected to come in second on the Billboard charts by selling about 150,000 records, while No Doubt should move around 125,000. Lupe Fiasco’s Food And Liquor II is expected to sell around 100,000.
Mumford & Sons' debut record, Sigh No More, came out in 2009. To date it’s sold about 2.5 million copies in the States and peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard charts.