LAS VEGAS – SEPTEMBER 09: Rock band Linkin Park arrives at the 2007 Video Music Awards at the Palms … [+]
Linkin Park’s sophomore album Meteora was initially released in 2003, and at the time, it helped certify the band as not just newcomers in the hard rock genre, but stars. It built upon the incredible success of their debut full-length, Hybrid Theory, and produced a number of smashes that are still popular to this day.
In 2023, the band—which is now largely defunct—released a twentieth-anniversary edition of the title, and it returned to charts all around the world. In the year since then, Meteora has remained in the minds, and ears, of Linkin Park fans, who have kept it rising and falling on rankings as they continue to buy and stream the set.
Meteora returns to a pair of charts in the U.S. this week, as longtime Linkin Park lovers have made the set a hit all over again. It hasn’t been very long since the title last appeared on some tallies published by Billboard, but as sales climb, the project returns to several lists simultaneously.
The hard rock set blasts back onto the Top Album Sales and Vinyl Albums charts this week. Meteora reappears at No. 43 on the former, and No. 21 on the latter.
Meteora has previously ruled both of those tallies. It’s now spent an incredible 120 weeks on the Top Album Sales chart, which ranks the bestselling full-lengths in the country. In stark contrast to that long-running success, the same project has only managed four frames on the Vinyl Albums list, which focuses solely on the bestselling titles on vinyl.
In the past tracking week, Meteora sold 2,600 copies, according to Luminate. That number is up more than 33% from the period before, when it didn’t quite manage 2,000 purchases. It’s not clear, based on Luminate’s numbers, how many of those sales were on vinyl, versus some other format.
As it returns to two charts, Meteora is also on the rise on four other tallies in America. Linkin Park’s classic soars on the Billboard200 (No. 66), Top Rock & Alternative Albums (No. 15), Top Rock Albums (No. 12), and Top Alternative Albums (No. 7) charts. It’s a non-mover at No. 3 on the Top Hard Rock Albums list.
