Born This Way is the fastest-selling album in six years.
The fame monster roars: Lady Gaga’s latest album is the fastest-selling set in six years, with sales of 1,108,000 in its debut week. That makes it the fastest seller since 50 Cent’s The Massacre, which bowed with 1,141,000 in 2005, and makes the pop star only the fifth woman to ever sell 1 million albums in one week . Born This Way benefitted from an aggressive marketing campaign and a bevy of TV appearances, and Amazon sold the album at a deep discount of 99 cents. But the promotional offers on the album—Best Buy gave it away for free with smartphones—also caused some controversy, as some industry insiders said Billboard should not count it as part of regular album sales. Born This Way is is Lady Gaga’s first No. 1 album.
