CHART STORY: RIRI'S
SPS EDGE

As the 51st annual ACM Awards near, Joey + Rory’s Hymns (Gaither) edges out Adele (who's now well past 8.5m sales, btw) at the top of this week's HITS Album Sales Chart to hit #1 with 43k and Chris Stapleton’s Traveller (Mercury Nashville) jumps #6-4 with 27k. Stapleton has the most nominations going into the big night—set for 4/3—with six and he’s scheduled to perform, while Joey + Rory are up for Vocal Duo of the Year. Following Joey Feek's passing earlier this month, Hymns benefited from big physical sales, with a big contribution from Cracker Barrel.

The other top-charting debuts this week are Roadrunner’s Killswitch Engage, Provident's Bethel Music, Republic’s 3 Doors Down and Stoney Creek's Randy Houser, who land at #3, #5, #6 and #7, respectively.

The drama comes on the Sales Plus Streaming (SPS) side, where Westbury Road/Roc Nation's Rihanna, now on tour in the U.S., edges out Adele by less than 1k sales + streams. Also continuing to dominate on the SPS side at #3 is Def Jam's Justin Bieber.

Streeting this week are albums from Interscope’s Gwen Stefani and Republic’s Jordan Smith—the season 9 winner of NBC’s The Voice—along with Zone 4/RCA Nashville's Kane Brown, Bobby Bones & The Raging Idiots (Black River), Iggy Pop’s Post Pop Depression, out via Loma Vista, and Capitol's Niykee Heaton.