Sabrina Carpenter Tops Albums Chart With Third Biggest Debut of 2024, Beats Travis Scott in Tight Race for No. 1

Sabrina Carpenter’s “Short n’ Sweet” has won the race for a No. 1 debut on Billboard 200 chart, shutting out stiff competition from Travis Scott and his 2014 mixtape “Days Before Rodeo.”

The set opens with 362,000 equivalent album units, per Luminate, as Carpenter’s highest-charting effort of her career — her first to reach the Top 20 of the albums chart. It’s also the year’s third-largest debut overall behind Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” (debuted with 407,000 units) and Taylor Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department” (2.61 million units, also the second-biggest debut of all time).

With the album available for purchase across multiple physical formats, “Short n’ Sweet’s” sales comprised 184,000 units (her biggest sales week ever and the fifth-largest sales debut of 2024) of the overall total, while the 12-song LP was streamed 233 million times. It’s the No. 1 album on both the streaming chart and vinyl sales chart (vinyl sales combined totaled 105,000  – the second-largest sales week of the year for a vinyl album).

Scott debuts at No. 2 with a little over 361,000 units — the year’s biggest week for any rap album so far. Its Aug. 23 release date marked the first time the set was available for purchase commercially and via streaming, propelling its album sales to comprise 331,000 units of its total sum.

The competition between Carpenter and Scott was much-talked about throughout the passing holiday weekend as it was reported “Short n’ Sweet” was headed for a No. 1 debut in close proximity to Scott’s “Days Before Rodeo.”

Carpenter released her sixth album, “Short n’ Sweet” on Aug. 23, the same day Scott dropped his 2014 mixtape “Days Before Rodeo” on streaming for the first time in honor of its 10th anniversary. The 12-song set consists of popular singles including “Don’t Play” featuring Big Sean and the 1975 as well as “Mamacita” featuring Rich Homie Quan and Young Thug. Additional guest appearances came from Migos, Peewee Longway and Young Thug, as well as production from Metro Boomin, Lex Luger, WondaGurl and more. Accompanying the streaming version of the album was three different box sets, hats, hoodies and vinyl. Fans were also able to purchase digital version with unreleased bonus tracks from the “Days Before Rodeo.”

Both Scott and Carpenter released additional digital versions of their albums throughout the tracking week, with Carpenter following a similar approach with alternative digital albums with a series of bonus tracks added: a cut called “Busy Woman,” another dubbed “Needless to Say” and a demo version of her album’s final single, “Taste.”

Outside of Scott and Carpenter, the only new release in the Top 10 of the Billboard 200 this week is Lainey Wilson’s “Whirlwind.” It debuts at No. 8 with 48,000 equivalent album units earned — her best week ever by units and her first Top 10 album ever.