Sales expectations ramped up in later months - some music mags a few weeks before release (HitsDailyDouble) posted that demand was almost even or higher in the USA for 1D over Eminem.

Eminem sold over 700k his first week in the USA. Sales may go up for 1D over the Thanksgiving Black Friday sales. If so, then I may be wrong - if sales go above 600k.

Previous leaks have come from the factory, from computer files, etc. No music company rep would leak the 1D album - would make no sense. People who downloaded the album would have no reason to purchase it during the first week - and first week sales are how an album is largely judged in America.

Eminem had less buzz but less of a leak in days and way less publicized. He pushed 700k+ of his album in the US first week. 1D may tick up to 600 or 650k. If so, then maybe the leak did not do as much damage as I think it did.

Thank you for having re-started this thread & looking up the data for us all

US Billboard Hot 100:

TW - LW Artist Title - WOC - Total Sales
11 - NE One Direction Diana -
12 - NE One Direction Midnight Memories
13 - 13 One Direction Story Of My Life - 500,000+
87 - NE One Direction Strong -

I can't find any 1D US sales data for this week, so if anyone has any feel free to post it

No probs It's nice to see how the different acts are getting on.

BBC Radio 1 Playlist:

A List: One Direction - Story Of My Life
B List: Olly Murs - Hand On Heart
C List: James Arthur - Recovery

Little Mix, Little Me will be added to the C List on the week commencing 2nd December.

BBC Radio 2 Playlist:

A List: Gary Barlow - Let Me Go
Olly Murs - Hand On Heart
One Direction - Story Of My Life
B List: Leona Lewis - One More Sleep

Album Of The Week (from 2nd December): Leona Lewis, Christmas, With Love

Heart Playlist:

Gary Barlow - Let Me Go
Leona Lewis - One More Sleep
Olly Murs - Dear Darlin'
One Direction - Story Of My Life

Capital Playlist:

James Arthur - You're Nobody Til Somebody Loves You
Little Mix - Little Me
Little Mix - Move
Olly Murs - Hand On Heart
One Direction - Story Of My Life
Union J - Loving You Is Easy

awww!! thank you very much!!

i remember fans on twitter at the time of the leak said it was itunes who inadvertently made the album available to some fans who pre-ordered it... i can't recall having heard of any other "source"...

Wow, SOML totally dominating the airwaves

Re: sales data in the US: The sales this week were very low, as sales that automatically resulted from a pre-order of the album on itunes (= instant grats) and therefore counted in the weeks leading up to the album release, are deducted once the album is out. Wit the "Complete My Album" feature, they know who really bought the song separately and who only got it as an instant grat. So while the numbers still counted for the Hot 100 chart, they were filtered out in the Digital Songs Chart.

This CMA effect could even lead to negative sales in a week (apparently this happened to one of Taylor Swift's songs last year), but they will be back to a higher level next week.
In my opinion, that's a more "honest" way of counting the number of downloads. In the UK, you could get some songs before the album release (or even now it's released), they counted as single sales. Then you complete the album, now it also counts as 1 album sale, even though you maybe only paid 4-5 £ to complete the album, because you already had so many songs...

So, Midnight Memories sold 237.338 copies. Great result 88th biggest first week sale ever in the UK.

Isn't Billion Lights getting any radio play

I'm surprised with being their final single

UK Top 40 Singles Chart:

TW - LW Artist Title - WOC - Total Sales
2 - 3 Gary Barlow Let Me Go - 2 - 132,644
3 - 10 One Direction Story Of My Life - 5 - 212,344
12 - 8 Little Mix Move - 4 - 194,890
19 - NE One Direction - You & I - 1 - 15,782
21 - NE One Direction - Don't Forget Where You Belong - 1 - 15,041
25 - 110 Olly Murs - Hand On Heart - 2 - 12,178

*One Direction total UK singles sales: 3,856,714

UK Top 40 Albums Chart:

TW - LW Artist Title - WOC - Total Sales
1 - NE One Direction Midnight Memories - 1 - 237,338*
2 - NE Gary Barlow Since I Saw You Last - 1 - 116,151
4 - NE Olly Murs Right Place Right Time Special Edition - 1 - 901,489**
11 - 8 Little Mix Salute - 3 - 79,481
14 - 6 JLS Goodbye - The Greatest Hits - 2 - 40,796
18 - 10 James Arthur James Arthur - 4 - 118,849
33 - 33 One Direction Take Me Home - 55 - 871,574
40 - 31 One Direction Up All Night - 106 - 1,000,412***

*Highest first week sales of 2013
** Sales are for all versions of Right Place Right Time (Sales this week were 46,423)
***One Direction's first million selling album (sales of 6,325 this week broke the million mark)

A great week for 1D!

Wow James's album sales are great! Hope it continues!

This week:

Rebecca Ferguson releases I Hope and Freedom.
Leona's Christmas single, One More Sleep should debut in the Top 40 and begin its climb up the chart.
Leona's Christmas album, Christmas, With Love, will also debut this week.
James Arthur will aim to make a Recovery.
One Direction could pull off a chart double, with Story Of My Life sitting at #1 on iTunes.

Thankyou for all the information.

Very happy for the One Direction boys.

Well, they're not really THAT great, considering he's the winner and has had one of the biggest winner singles in recent years... Only 118.000 after 4 weeks is quite poor, I'd say! Even Matt Cardle managed about 300.000 copies with his debut album.
Of course, we have yet to see how James is doing in the long run, but so far it's not overwhelming in my opinion...

He hasn't done too badly considering he has only just performed on the X Factor to promote the album. Cardle and most acts perform a day before their albums or singles are released, he has done it the hard way, the same way most non X Factor artists would, and to get this result is pretty good.

UK Singles Chart Midweek Update:

#2 One Direction, Story Of My Life (Up 1) 18.7k
#5 Gary Barlow, Let Me Go (Down 3) 16.5k
#12 James Arthur, Recovery (New Entry)
#13 Little Mix, Move (Down 1)
#14 Rebecca Ferguson, I Hope (New Entry)
#32 Leona Lewis, One More Sleep (New Entry)
#34 Olly Murs, Hand On Heart (Down 9)

UK Album Chart Midweek Update:

#1 One Direction, Midnight Memories (Non-mover) 55.6k
#3 Gary Barlow, Since I Saw You Last (Down 1) 31.7k
#5 Olly Murs, Right Place, Right Time (Special Edition) (Down 1) 17.8k
#6 Rebecca Ferguson, Freedom (New Entry)
#13 James Arthur, James Arthur (Up 5)
#15 Little Mix, Salute (Down 4)
#17 Leona Lewis, Christmas, With Love (New Entry)
#33 JLS, Goodbye - The Greatest Hits (Down 19)

US Billboard 200:

#1 One Direction, Midnight Memories (New Entry) 546,000

Midnight Memories is One Direction's third consecutive US Billboard #1 album.
They managed their biggest opening week sales, selling 6k more than they managed for Take Me Home and 370k more than Up All Night.

Well done Rebecca.

US Billboard Hot 100:

TW - LW Artist Title - WOC - Total Sales
8 - 13 One Direction Story Of My Life - 5 - 600,000+

Story Of My Life had weekly sales of 118,000.

Thursday Midweek Sales Data:

UK Album Chart:

#1 One Direction, Midnight Memories 74k
#3 Gary Barlow, Since I Saw You Last 41k

UK Top 40 Singles Chart:

TW - LW Artist Title - WOC - Total Sales
2 - 3 One Direction Story Of My Life - 6 - 252,573
5 - 2 Gary Barlow Let Me Go - 3 - 165,806
13 - 12 Little Mix Move - 5 - ~213,000
15 - NE Rebecca Ferguson I Hope - 1 - 17,258
19 - NE James Arthur Recovery - 1 - 15,962
34 - NE Leona Lewis One More Sleep - 1 - 8,894
40 - 25 Olly Murs - Hand On Heart - 3 - ~20,000