Just How Big Was Morgan Wallen’s ‘I’m The Problem’ Debut?

Breaking down all the numbers, and history, behind Wallen’s big week.

Spidey Smith

Back in 2021, Morgan Wallen proved that he was more than just a country music heavyweight — he was a major force in popular music by every measure.

His album Dangerous: The Double Album launched at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart in January 2021 with 265,000 equivalent album earned in the United Staes in its opening week, according to Luminate, and spent 10 weeks on top, later finishing the year as the No. 1 year-end album. Then came 2023’s One Thing at a Time, which opened atop the chart in March 2023 with 501,000 units and ruled the chart for 19 weeks — ultimately becoming that year’s top album, while its breakout hit “Last Night” ruled as the year’s No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 song.

And now here we are with I’m The Problem.

The 37-track juggernaut debuts at No. 1 with 493,000 units (in the week ending May 22) — slightly lower than the first-week total of One Thing at a Time, but comfortably the biggest opening of 2025. It marks another massive streaming success for Wallen, and makes him one of just a handful of artists to notch multiple six-figure debuts in recent years. Since releasing One Thing at a Time in 2023, only four albums have debuted with larger opening weeks than I’m the Problem’s debut sum — and three were by Taylor Swift.

Artist, Title, Debut Week Units (Chart Date)
Taylor Swift, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), 716,000 (July 22, 2023)
Travis Scott, Utopia, 496,000, (Aug. 12, 2023)
Taylor Swift, 1989 (Taylor’s Version), 1.653 million, (Nov. 22, 2023)
Taylor Swift, The Tortured Poets Department, 2.610 million, (May 4, 2024)

But let’s break it down even further. Here are the top 15 biggest opening-week totals this decade (2020-present).

Artist, Title, Debut Week Units (Chart Date)
2.610 million, Taylor Swift, The Tortured Poets Department (May 4, 2024)
1.653 million, Taylor Swift, 1989 (Taylor’s Version) (Nov. 11, 2023)
1.578 million, Taylor Swift, Midnights (Nov. 5, 2022)
846,000, Taylor Swift, Folklore (Aug. 8, 2020)
839,000, Adele, 30 (Dec. 4, 2021)
716,000, Taylor Swift, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) (July 22, 2023)
613,000, Drake, Certified Lover Boy (Sept. 18, 2021)
605,000, Taylor Swift, Red (Taylor’s Version) (Nov. 27, 2021)
521,000, Harry Styles, Harry’s House (June 4, 2022)
501,000, Morgan Wallen, One Thing at a Time (March 18, 2023)
497,000, Juice WRLD, Legends Never Die (July 25, 2020)
496,000, Travis Scott, Utopia (Aug. 12, 2023)
493,000, Morgan Wallen, I’m the Problem (May 31, 2025)
490,000, The Weeknd, Hurry Up Tomorrow (Feb. 15, 2025)
444,000, The Weeknd, After Hours (April 4, 2020)

Yes, Taylor Swift dominates this list, owning six of the top 10 biggest debut weeks this decade (including the entire top four). But Wallen’s back-to-back blockbuster debuts are incredibly rare, especially for a country artist. One Thing at a Time and I’m the Problem now rank as the third- and fourth-biggest country debuts of the 2020s, trailing only Swift’s re-recordings of Speak Now and Red. The next-biggest after him are Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter (332,000; April 13, 2024), Swift’s Fearless (Taylor’s Version) (291,000; April 24, 2021), Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album (265,000; Jan. 23, 2021) and Kenny Chesney’s Here and Now (233,000; May 16, 2020).

Country stars almost never break the 300,000 opening-week threshold, but Wallen is the rare exception who has done it twice.

Maybe even more remarkable is Wallen’s latest performance on the Billboard Hot 100. He charts 37 songs on the latest chart simultaneously, breaking his own record for the most entries on the chart in a single week. Thirty six of those are from the new album, with the 37th being his No. 1 collab with Post Malone, “I Had Some Help.” The only song from the album missing from this week’s chart is “Lies Lies Lies,” which peaked at No. 7 last summer and went recurrent in January.

Here’s an updated look at the most songs an artist has charted on the Hot 100 at once:

Most Simultaneous Hot 100 Entries in a Single Week

Number of Titles, Artist, Chart Date
37, Morgan Wallen, 5/31/2025
36, Morgan Wallen, 3/18/2023
32, Taylor Swift, 5/4/2024
31, Playboi Carti, 3/29/2025
31, Taylor Swift, 5/11/2024
28, Morgan Wallen, 3/25/2023
27, Drake, 7/14/2018
26, Taylor Swift, 5/18/2024
26, Taylor Swift, 11/27/2021
25, Taylor Swift, 7/22/2023
25, Lil Baby, 10/29/2022

And here's a rundown of Wallen’s Hot 100 impact this week (all are debuts except where noted):

No. 1, “What I Want” feat. Tate McRae
No. 2, “Just in Case” (up from No. 11; new peak)
No. 3, “I’m The Problem” (up from No. 6; peaked at No. 2)
No. 7, “I Got Better”
No. 8, “Superman” (up from No. 16; new peak)
No. 10, “Love Somebody” (up from No. 18; peaked at No. 1)
No. 15, “I Ain’t Coming Back” feat. Post Malone (up from No. 25; peaked at No. 8)
No. 19, “I Had Some Help” with Post Malone (down from No. 13; peaked at No. 1)
No. 20, “20 Cigarettes”
No. 21, “Kick Myself”
No. 22, “Eyes Are Closed”
No. 25, “Falling Apart”
No. 29, “Skoal, Chevy, And Browning”
No. 31, “TN”
No. 32, “Where’d That Girl Go”
No. 34, “Kiss Her in Front of You”
No. 40, “I’m A Little Crazy” (up from No. 52; peaked at No. 17)
No. 41, “If You Were Mine”
No. 42, “Missing”
No. 45, “Smile” (up from No. 68; peaked at No. 4)
No. 46, “Genesis”
No. 48, “Don’t We”
No. 50, “Dark Til Daylight”
No. 51, “Interlude”
No. 52, “Number 3 And Number 7” feat. Eric Church
No. 54, “Revelation”
No. 60, “Jack and Jill”
No. 63, “Come Back as a Redneck” feat. HARDY
No. 65, “Miami”
No. 69, “The Dealer” feat. ERNEST
No. 70, “Leavin’s the Least I Could Do”
No. 72, “Drinking Til It Does”
No. 73, “Nothin’ Left”
No. 79, “LA Night”
No. 83, “Whiskey in Reverse”
No. 84, “Working Man’s Song”
No. 88, “Crazy Eyes”

So, there you have it. I’m the Problem is another era-defining release for Wallen. Whether the album finishes as the No. 1 album of 2025 (following in the footsteps of its two predecessors) remains to be seen. But with a start this big, it’s very much in the running.

—Xander Zellner

Do you think I’m the Problem will go the distance this year? Let us know in the comments. And for more on the Billboard charts, click here.