A Masked-and-Costumed Swedish Band Claims Hard Rock’s First No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in Four Years

Does their big win this week mean hard rock is poised for a global comeback?

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In today’s big news, a hard-rock band from Sweden, Ghost, has grabbed the No. 1 slot on our flagship Billboard 200 albums chart for the first time, with their new studio effort Skeletá debuting on with 86,000 equivalent album units earned right here in the United States in the week ending May 1, according to Luminate. Of those units, 89 percent were driven by traditional album sales — buoyed by huge vinyl sales.

Ghost’s victory is all the more impressive in that their album replaces SZA’s SOS atop the chart, even as SZA tours stadiums with Kendrick Lamar; both SZA and Kendrick continue to outstream Ghost by leaps and bounds, and their albums (SOS and GNX) are Nos. 2 and No. 3 this week respectively. It’s also a landmark moment for metalheads — Skeletá is the first hard rock album to reach No. 1 since AC/DC’s Power Up in November 2020. Before that, it was Tool’s Fear Inoculum and Slipknot’s We Are Not Your Kind in 2019. All three of those bands were already well established when those albums topped the chart — and, they had all earned No. 1s before then. How long has it been since a hard rock act scored its first No. 1 album? 10 whole years. In July 2015, Breaking Benjamin topped the chart for the first with Dark Before Dawn.

Okay, okay, so Ghost didn’t just appear out of nowhere — they’ve been gaining attention in the U.S. for more than a decade — even scoring a surprise Billboard Hot 100 entry in 2022 with “Mary on a Cross,” a TikTok hit. They’ve even reached the Billboard 200 before — eight other times to be exact. Four of those albums even made it to the top 10, with 2018’s Prequelle reaching No. 3 and 2022’s Impera peaking at No. 2.

But does their big win this week mean hard rock is poised for a comeback? Tune in here to find out — we’re sending our editor-at-large Rob Levine to see the Nameless Ghouls, as Ghost's musicians are called, play live in Berlin later this week, and scare up some intel. (If you’re a fan, send makeup tips his way in the comments.)

Thanks for reading, happy listening, and send all of your burning charts questions our way.

Hannah Karp

Editor-in-Chief, Billboard

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