Luke Combs’ ‘Growin’ Up’ Album Sets Country Chart Mark for 2022
Luke Combs' new Growin' Up album did more than just debut at No. 1 on the Top Country Albums chart: It set a new bar for country albums released in 2022.
The singer and new father's third full-length studio album tallied 74,000 equivalent album units (per Billboard), a number that factors in album streams, album sales and digital song sales. That's the best debut for a country album in 2022, besting Zach Bryan's American Heartbreak album, which totaled 71,500 EAU in May.
The total is also good enough to knock Morgan Wallen's Dangerous: The Double Album (51,000 equivalent album units) down to No. 2. The 2020 project has lived at the top of the country album charts since its release, with high-profile artists like Jason Aldean, Carrie Underwood and Miranda Lambert unable to surpass his week-to-week total during street week.
Bryan's American Heartbreak and Taylor Swift's Red (Taylor's Version) are the only other albums to hit No. 1 this year.
Both of Combs' previous full-length albums also debuted at No. 1 on the Top Country Album chart, as did his 2019 EP, The Prequel. The LPs still perform very well commercially — in fact, five of the Top 6 albums on Billboard's current chart are from either Combs (3) or Wallen (2).
This week, Combs also has the No. 1 song on country streaming and digital song sales charts with his new single "The Kind of Love We Make."
Overall, sales and streaming totals have not reached the totals of previous years. Combs' What You See Is What You Get album (2019) delivered more than 170,000 EAU, and Walker Hayes — a sales and streaming leader from 2021 — totaled 33,000 units with Country Stuff: The Album in 2022. Of the Top 25 albums on the current Top Country Albums chart, just eight were released within the last 52 weeks.