All thanks to 15 vinyl variants, cassettes, and… Satan?
Swedish hard rock band Ghost has officially earned its first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200.
Skeletá 86,000 equivalent units in its debut week ending May 1, according to Luminate.
But, it’s not just the band’s personal best. It’s also the first hard rock album to reach No. 1 since AC/DC’s Power Up in 2020, making Ghost’s win a rare and major moment for the genre.
How “Skeletá” Brings Hard Rock Back to the Top
Skeletá is the band’s biggest chart achievement to date and the first time a hard rock album has topped the Billboard 200 since AC/DC’s Power Up back in November 2020.
A huge part of the album’s success came from physical sales. Out of the total, 77,000 units came from traditional album purchases.
To achieve this, Ghost leaned into collectibles, offering more than 15 vinyl versions, three CDs, and four cassette formats. All versions featured the same music, but the packaging gave fans a reason to grab more than one.
The vinyl numbers alone were massive.
For instance, over 44,000 copies were sold in the first week.
That’s the best vinyl week ever for a hard rock album since Billboard’s data partner Luminate started tracking in 1991!
In fact, only two other rock albums have done better on vinyl: blink-182’s One More Time… and boygenius’ The Record, both in 2023.
But, streaming wasn’t left behind either. Skeletá pulled in 12.45 million official on-demand streams, making it Ghost’s strongest streaming debut so far.
That’s a clear jump from the 9.11 million streams during the first week of their previous album Impera.
One of the album’s standouts, the radio single “Satanized,” also helped drive the momentum. It became the band’s 10th top 10 hit on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart.
Fans heard it everywhere, and it set the stage for the album’s strong performance across formats.
Ghost’s Chart Evolution
“Skeletá” represents the result of Ghost’s steady climb up the Billboard charts over the past decade.
The band first appeared on the Billboard 200 in 2013 with their second album “Infestissumam,” which reached No. 28.
Since that debut, they’ve placed nine albums on the Billboard 200. Eight of those made it into the top 40, and five have climbed into the top 10.
One of their biggest pushes came in 2022 with Impera, which reached No. 2.
Then came Skeletá.
Not only did it land them their first No. 1, but it made history for their label too. It’s the first chart-topping album for Loma Vista Recordings and the first No. 1 for Concord Label Group in nearly a decade.
The Hard Rock Chart Drought
Rock fans have waited a long time for this. Before Skeletá, the last time a hard rock album topped the Billboard 200 was back in 2020, when AC/DC’s Power Up debuted at No. 1. That was more than four years ago.
And, in the fast-moving world of music charts, that’s an eternity.
If you look back over the past decade, the numbers say it all. Since May 2015, there have been 297 albums that reached No. 1. Only eight of them came from hard rock bands. Just eight.
That short list includes:
- Ghost’s “Skeletá” (May 2025)
- AC/DC’s “Power Up” (November 2020)
- Tool’s “Fear Inoculum” (September 2019)
- Slipknot’s “We Are Not Your Kind” (August 2019)
- Foo Fighters’ “Concrete and Gold” (October 2017)
- Metallica’s “Hardwired… To Self-Destruct” (December 2016)
- Disturbed’s “Immortalized” (September 2015)
- Breaking Benjamin’s “Dark Before Dawn” (July 2015).
The scarcity of hard rock at No. 1 extends to rock music in general.
“Skeletá” is the only rock, hard rock, or alternative album to reach No. 1 in 2025 so far.
The last time a rock album did it at all was Coldplay’s Moon Music in October 2024, and even that only lasted a week.