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METALLICA Was 2017's Top Rock Artist, According to NIELSEN MUSIC

January 4, 2018

According to Nielsen Music's 2017 Year-End Music Report, METALLICA's "Hardwired... To Self-Destruct" was America's second-best-selling rock album of the year. The disc's sales of 585,000 were eclipsed only by "Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2: Awesome Mix Vol. 2 (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)", which featured the likes of CHEAP TRICK, FLEETWOOD MAC and ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA. "Hardwired... To Self-Destruct" also ranked third on Nielsen's Top Rock Albums chart for 2017, ninth on its Total Sales chart and third on its Top Physical Albums chart.

Overall, METALLICA was Nielsen's #1 rock artist of the year, with a combined total of 1,836,000 album sales, TEA (track-equivalent albums, a unit of measurement where 10 paid downloads equal one album) and SEA (on-demand audio streaming-equivalent albums, another unit of measurement where 1,500 streams equal one album).

"Hardwired... To Self-Destruct" — issued via the band's own Blackened Recordings imprint — has sold more than 1.1 million copies in America since its November 2016 release, according to SoundScan. Much of the gain in "Hardwired… To Self-Destruct" sales in early 2017 was owed to a concert ticket/album bundle sale redemption promotion with the band's stadium tour that went on sale last February. Redemptions of albums included with the purchase of a concert ticket registered as a sale in the week the customer redeemed/received the album.

"Hardwired… To Self-Destruct" debuted as expected at No. 1 on The Billboard 200 album chart in November 2016, selling 291,000 copies in its first week of release. Both of the band's previous outings, 2008's "Death Magnetic" and 2003's "St. Anger", sold more copies in shortened sales weeks. "Death Magnetic" moved 490,000 copies in a three-day window, while "St. Anger" shifted 418,000 copies in a similar frame.

"Hardwired... To Self-Destruct" consists of two discs, containing a dozen songs and nearly 80 minutes of music.

Nielsen Music collects and compiles the sales data used to tabulate Billboard's charts.

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