While Khalid took a scenic drive onto the Billboard 200’s second quadrant with his 2021 mixtape, it’s been five years since his fans were last treated to a studio album.
With that set – 2019’s chart-topping ‘Free Spirit‘ – being his first #1 and second top 5 hit on the all-genre chart, it undoubtedly set the bar high for the commercial performance expectations of its follow-up.
Originally titled ‘Everything Is Changing,’ the LP was beleaguered by a murky rollout that included a string of non-charting singles and an eventual name change to ‘Sincere‘ before being softly launched on August 2.
Unexpectedly, its battle for Billboard 200 dominance was met by two BIG challengers: the newest variant of Taylor Swift‘s blockbuster ‘The Tortured Poets Department‘ as well as Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign‘s joint album ‘Vultures 2.’
Look inside to see how ‘Sincere’ stacked up against the chart titans.
Khalid’s ‘Sincere’
First-Week Sales (SPS): 17,000 units
Billboard 200 Debut: #43
With his lowest first-week sales to date, the #43 opening of ‘Sincere’ marks a career milestone for Khalid as it’s his first studio effort to miss the Billboard 200’s top 10 upon arrival.
The LP’s predecessors, 2017’s ‘American Teen‘ (#4 peak) and 2019’s ‘Spirit’ (#1 peak), opened to sales of 37,000 and 202,000 respectively.
Contextually speaking, there is some good news though.
Among the week’s new arrivals, ‘Sincere’ comes as the second highest-charting debut following the #2 nesting of ‘Vultures 2.’
Faring even better on Billboard’s Top R&B Albums chart, the project entered at #2 and marks his third top 5 hit on the tally following the #1 peaks of ‘Teen’ and ‘Spirit’ respectively.
As far as the Billboard 200 goes, look below to see who joins Khalid on the updated version of TGJ’s Chart Check.