After a whirlwind launch campaign, the first week numbers are finally in for Katy Perry‘s latest album ‘Witness.’
Naturally, given the enormity of her star, eyes would always have been peeled to see her tally.
Yet, with the roller-coaster that preceded its release (see: under-performing singles, controversies, and memes), heightened interest surrounds the amount of support she received at retail.
Well, wonder no more because the answer awaits below…
Per Hits Daily Double‘s final count, ‘Witness’ will top the Billboard 200. It sold the following to do so…
187,338 – Sales Plus Streaming
(169,522 – Pure Sales)
**************
There are a few ways of dissecting and digesting the digits.
On the one hand, they are not only impressive by today’s scarily low sales standards but they are commendable given the LP’s lack of preceding hit. Logic had many (us included) feeling that folk wouldn’t part with $10.99 for an album if they wouldn’t even spend $1.29 on her single. Or, worse still, even bother streaming it for free.
Yet, Perry has clearly defied the odds on that front.
Still, for an act of her caliber, she should – in theory – be doing numbers double, triple what she managed to deliver.
Indeed, in the four years since preceding album ‘Prism’ (which opened with 266k), she’s been armored with the momentum of huge hits such as ‘Roar’ and seismic exposure platforms like the Super Bowl. Put simply, she’s become bigger, yet her numbers are smaller.
Something isn’t adding up. Why?
![Nelly & Kelly Rowland Reunite to Perform Their 2002 Hit 'Dilemma' at the 2024 Baby2Baby Gala [Video]](https://thatgrapejuice.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/kelly-rowland-baby2baby-thatgrapejuice-2024-dilemma-nelly-464x260.jpg "Nelly & Kelly Rowland Reunite to Perform Their 2002 Hit 'Dilemma' at the 2024 Baby2Baby Gala [Video].")
A lot of artists are becoming bigger, while they’re numbers are getting smaller. Do you really need to ask that question? No one’s really buying music these days; it’s all about branding.
*mic drop*
True tea g
Good numbers.
Issa flop tho lol #Flopness
All these year’s, I’ve never streamed any type of songs!! I continue to buy the album’s of the artist I still want to hear!!
The music isn’t good that’s why. For the first time, she has released an album that sounds very on-trend and therefore not authentic. It’s very generic – she definitely released the best threebsongs on the album.
That’s not true. This album is really good. You haven’t taken the time to listen to the rest of it, obviously.
I did but can’t wait for katy to get a Swift Kick in the pants
The real revelation will be the second week numbers. I expect a large drop-off.
Yes there will be major drop off.
Catastrophic lol #Flopness #FlopToTheRhythm #FlopAppetit #FlushFlush
Music has become so generic and disposable that there’s no point in even buying anymore. Streaming is the way to go. However, those who are still buying music are mostly middle America white people, mostly female. Katy has clearly alienated that audience with this album, not to mention the fact that this new haircut is not flattering. This is exactly why country music continues to sell, because the audience that still buys music either wants safe pop/rock/country, or trendy rap music to escape from their suburban boredom.
Does country music really sell like that though?
She’s getting older.She is 32 now.She is the same age as some of the mothers of the pop consumers of today.Pop is very much concentrated to an under 25 audience (especially pre-tweenies / tween ies / teenagers).They have to throw alot of $$$ behind Katy Perry for to have any sort of traction with this audience.
It seems to me that alot of better selling pop singers tend to sing with a patois / pidgin vocal delivery.This fits in with contemporary r ‘n b / hip hop (rap) / EDM fusion that is popular with today’s young consumers (inc. downloaders / streamers / youtubeviews etc.).Katy Perry doesn’t really fit in with this style, alongside the age traction difficulty.She is no longer trendy with the young pop consumer’s.
Katy Perry is very much still a ‘live’ draw – which were the money is in today’s music (apart from endorsement’s + merchandise perhaps).This is becoming more about Katy Perry as a nostalgia act, than a contemporary act, however.She still has to have just enough pop exposure / media exposure to keep this live draw going.
Most interesting to me is the fact that ‘Joanne’, (a well promoted album but nothing compared to Katy’ s ‘Witness’ rollout) managed to get 170k pure/201k sps on the back of a flop lead single (Perfect Illusion.) Yet, Katy had not one but THREE, including a Tay Swift diss record and a trend chasing Migos collab. Just look how mighty the Hot 100 queens have fallen. No hate…just an observation based on the stan wars y’all like to promote here. ?? Btw, ‘Witness’ is not that bad either. You just have to edit/cut about half the songs.
My personal track picks:
Witness
Hey Hey Hey
Deja Vu
Swish Swish
Tsunami
Miss You More
Pendulum
Bon Appetit (sadly,I can’t resist the Migos feature)
I somewhat agree with you. I believe she should have choose different singles, or else we wouldn’t be having this conversation.
Chose*
Gaga and this has just proven who is here to stay no matter what due to talent and who isn´t. Joanne sold slightly more depite being less promoted, being less appealing to pop listeners and coming from a previous “weak” commercial era, while Katy was coming from somthing supposedly strong commercially with Prism. So much for Katy ending Gaga like many superficial stans liked to say so much a couple of years ago 🙂
these are flop numbers because she gave it away with her tour tickets. She’s not even in the top 40 on itunes, watch how hard she drops next week.
Exactly! But I doubt the drop will be that drastic because her team just released another batch of tickets for Her tour so they really making sure that this era isn’t a flop
Damn it’s out the top 40 already?! That’s insanely bad.
Isn’t that exactly what Halsey just did? Katy you couldn’t spend an extra 15K to buy more your own albums just to make sure you slightly passed 200K like Gaga did….
Rihanna teas.
She couldn’t even do 200K with a tour bundle? Mess .. I wonder how much she sold without the tour bundle.
Anyways Katy you had a good run
And her streaming numbers are terrible for someone who’s last album was streamed over a billion times
Those streams are pathetic for someone of her status..So she did less than Gaga..hehehehe..
Anyway I love I miss you or whatever its called..where are her teenage fans? I mean this doesn’t make sense.
Well she’s a long term roll out plan kinda artist when it comes to her albums so she will do fine…the album has way better songs than those 3 she released
thats the problem. katy is a singles artist, and her singles flopped. witness is an amazing album but the singles are katys biggest gain and because she poorly chose the singles her album flopped along with them. katy has never stayed in the number 1 spot on the billboard 200 for more than 1 week, because she is mainly based on singles. sadly she messed up not choosing roulette, witness, or hey hey hey as lead singles. bon appetit is what caused this album to flop.
I thought she would sell more considering the 4 day livestream on YouTube to support the launch of the album but it’s not the case.
Only a few artists are selling huge numbers. It is no longer a benchmark used for success. Today it’s social media influence, views, shares , tags & likes.
She is also corny , which doesn’t help. People didn’t like that she cut her hair ( looks horrible) and that affects sales too.
I doubt her haircut had that much to do with sales.
This era had a really shaky start, and in that regard, I think she posted good first week numbers. She’s been running strong since 2008. Also, the songs just weren’t that good this time.
I wonder if this stunt queen will come out and say Album sales don’t matter. They are fake numbers. Its construct.
lol #Flopness
Yes it’s a Flopmess #FlushFlush
Are you dumb? You just explained why the numbers are what they are. She didn’t have any hits.. You’ll say anything to make an artist that you don’t really care for look not so good. These are very good numbers..
I’m not going to lie, these numbers are SO MUCH BETTER than I thought. I seriously didn’t think the album would move 100k in pure sales based off the lack of interest in her singles and her odd persona as of lately. And honestly, I listened to the album and it’s not as bad as people are saying it is. I actually like it better than the generically bland “Prism.”
No one cares about video views. A stranger can earn a lot of those. Sales are still a big deal for major pop artists/major artist. Social media views? Lol ????
Really want to know what her sales were without the ticket bundle.
Dead to the bed at her streaming numbers being THAT much smaller than Halsey’s. With all that promo.
America was extremely polarized during the 2016 presidential election. She made the mistake of entering that realm and strongly supporting one of the most unpopular candidates in US history. Her quotes were scrutinized and ridiculed by countless news outlets. She released material that can still fit on her 2010 album. People got tired of a one trick pony that tries to preach politics when she is not knowledgeable in the subject.
Also: the album is filled with cringeworthy lyrics such as “your words are like Chinese water torture”
I totally agree.
She has changed, and not to the better.
Katy Perry has already had her time. She is trying to come back with a new album but I think Katy Perry should move out of the spotlight now. It’s time for the new stars to shine.
i think Katy is learning that a large part of her fan base leans right politically.