GRAMMY NOMS BY THE NUMBERS: ALBUM OF THE YEAR

While sales aren’t among the criteria to be considered when the Grammy nominations are supposedly “voted” on, it’s nonetheless fascinating to look at the nominees in the Big Three categories and the Best New Artist field in terms of comparative activity to date.

When listed in descending order by ATD, there’s a clear divide between the top four nominated albums—with Post Malone, Taylor Swift and Jhené Aiko in seven figures and Dua Lipa approaching 1 million—and the remaining four, none of which has yet cleared 200k. Whoever determined the nominees, we can only assume the latter four albums made the final cut because of their “artistic excellence.”

Below, for the sake of comparison, we’ve also listed ATD for five of the most surprising snubs; Lil Baby, The Weeknd, Pop Smoke, Harry Styles and Summer Walker, all of whom released commercially successful and critically acclaimed albums during the eligibility period, were shut out of the Big Three categories.

In the coming days, we’ll employ the same criterion to break down the nominees for Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best New Artist.