Evanescence released its first new album in five years last week, scoring its second No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 albums chart with 127,000 copies sold. The band's last album, "The Open Door," also opened at the top of the chart with 447,000 copies sold in 2006.
While 127,000 sounds like a low sales total for a No. 1 album, it is not even close to the worst performance for a chart-topper. That dubious distinction belongs to Cake, whose "Showroom of Comapssion" set debuted at the top of the chart in late January of this year with just 44,000 units sold. The beginning of this year was particularly tough for album sales, however, as Cake unseated Taylor Swift's "Speak Now," which sold just 52,000 copies to top the chart the week before, as the chart's lowest-selling No. 1 album ever.
Swift's album, however, was in its sixth non-consecutive week atop the chart, whereas Evanescence and Cake topped the chart in their album's first week. Before Swift's album set the mark, the previous record-low sales for a No. 1 album was set by the soundtrack for the film "Dreamgirls," which led the way with just over 60,000 units moved in late January 2007.