First Week Sales of 2022

A look back at 200 Hard Rock, Metal, Punk(ish) debuts

Two Hundred First Week Sales of 2022

Stream N’ Destroy used to be called “A Few Scans” and the name change came about to better reflect what I’m doing here: gathering and streamlining all of the metrics that matter, beyond SoundScan (now Luminate Data), specifically for folks who are in and/or follow the Hard Rock, Metal, and Punk(ish) industry.

That includes but is not limited to concert attendance, streaming, social media, and yes, sales, so long as fans continue to collect vinyl, CDs, and cassettes. I believe it takes all of it combined to get any sort of true picture of where an artist stands in the overall landscape. Information is power and it’s my hope that these analytics empower artists and their teams to make informed decisions.

With the holidays fast approaching, here’s a collection of 200 first-week numbers for several Hard Rock, Metal, and Punk(ish) albums released this year.

Ghost, Slipknot, Megadeth, Dance Gavin Dance, Motionless In White, Five Finger Death Punch, Korn, Lamb Of God, Coheed And Cambria, and more.

Even as supply chain issues (right down to a shortage of mail carriers) and pressing plant delays continued to gum up the works, a number of bands earned strong debuts this year, including Ghost, Slipknot, Megadeth, Dance Gavin Dance, Motionless In White, Five Finger Death Punch, and Korn.

These are “album sales,” meaning a combination of physical (CD, LP, cassette) and paid digital downloads.