Ed Sheeran‘s Billboard 200 top 5 streak may still be in tact thanks to the lukewarm opening of his latest album, the September 12-released ‘Play,’ but the project’s debut marks a career low for the 4-time GRAMMY winner.
Details inside.
Ed Sheeran’s ‘Play’
First-Week Sales (SPS): 71,000 units
Billboard 200 Debut: #5
‘Play’ premiered on the updated Billboard 200 in the #5 slot to total first-week sales of 71,000, the lowest Stateside opening figures of his career.
The sum was aided by its availability across a deluxe CD boxed set containing a T-shirt and a signed CD, a standard streaming and digital download album, more than 10 vinyl variants, four standard CD variants, two deluxe CD editions, and a deluxe streaming and digital download album with five bonus tracks.
Despite the valiant effort, the LP’s premiere position still comes as his lowest arrival since his inaugural album ‘Plus‘ debuted and peaked at #5 in 2011.
Led to Billboard battle by singles ‘Camera,’ ‘A Little More,’ ‘Sapphire,’ ‘Old Phone,’ and ‘Azizam,’ the September 12-released project also comes as his first without a Hot 100 top 20 hit preceding its release.
Look below to see who joins him in the top 10 of this week’s Billboard 200.
Billboard 200 This Week
View this post on Instagram
See the full chart here.
Your thoughts?
![TV Preview: ‘Married to Medicine’ [Season 12 / Episode 2]](https://thatgrapejuice.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/married-to-medicine-season-2025-tgj-464x260.jpg)
![TV Trailer: ‘Real Housewives of Potomac’ [Season 10 / Episode 10]](https://thatgrapejuice.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/rhop-season-10-10-tgj-464x260.jpg)
Flop! The whole album is boring af. World music ain’t it. The uptempos are nothing like shape of you, sing or bad habit. The ballads are not iconic like perfect, photograph or thinking out loud… the whole era is a god damn mess💅🏼 rest it peace
It is a dying industry. And no one is producing hot albums anymore. So many fillers and not even one hit on some albums (like mariah carey’s new release). They want us to buy albums, but what are we actually going to do with a CD? Play it on what? Listen to it on what? Store it where?
2025 has been an amazing year for music. Yet people need to be force-fed in order for you to actually consume it. There are so many options for you to choose from, you just have to do a little more work to discover them for yourself. If you’re solely relying on Billboard to help with your music tastes, then you are going to be disappointed every time. And vinyl/cd cassette players with Bluetooth capabilities are widely available for purchase on sites like Amazon for 100-150ish dollars. I do understand if you’d rather spend your money and time elsewhere though 🤷 Free will lol
Mariah lastest release is good actually.