Ghost's New Album 'Skeleta' Debuts At No. 1 On Billboard 200

05-05-2025

(NLM) Transcending genre and defying trends, Ghost's SKELETA has debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200. The #1 album in the country, SKELETA accrued sales of 86,000 in the week since its April 25 release via Loma Vista Recordings.

Currently the world's biggest-selling album and the week's lone Top 10 debut, SKELETA's first week haul bests the nearly 70,000 moved by its predecessor IMPERA in its first week of release. SKELETA also landed at #1 on the U.S. Album, Vinyl Album, Indie Store Album, Independent Album, Rock Album, Rock and Alternative Album, and Hard Rock Album charts. Internationally, the album bowed at #1 in the GRAMMY-winning theatrical rock outfit's native Sweden as well as Germany, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland and Finland, #2 in the UK, Netherlands and Norway, #4 in France and #6 in Ireland, among others.

In addition to being the first time a hard rock album has topped the Billboard 200 since 2020, SKELETA has racked up the biggest sales week for a rock, hard rock or alternative album in 2025-as well as the biggest vinyl sales week for any hard rock LP since the dawn of the Luminate era in 1991 and the most for any rock album since 2023.

The coming of SKELETA was heralded by three singles/videos that trended Top 10 on YouTube, as GHOST garnered #1 spots on Tik Tok's #NewMusic, iTunes and Amazon's Best Sellers. First up was "Satanized"-dubbed a "catchy goth-rock epic" by VICE, followed by the "Lachryma"-a fixture on Spotify's Viral Charts, both globally and in key territories like the US, UK, Germany, and more deemed "economical, vicious, and contemporary, but tinged by '80s rhapsody" by PASTE and "phantasmagoric" by REVOLVER, and "Peacefield," the monolithic anthem opening both the new record and GHOST's massive live rituals on its current SKELETOUR WORLD TOUR 2025.

Featuring the flesh and bone debut of frontman Papa V Perpetua and having sold half a million tickets and counting, the SKELETOUR WORLD TOUR 2025 kicks off a North American swing that will begin July 9 in Baltimore and include GHOST's historic first-ever headlining show at New York's Madison Square Garden on July 22. With more shows to be announced soon, the SKELETOUR WORLD TOUR 2025 ritual experience promises to expand the GHOST community to attract its largest and most diverse audiences to date. From lifelong disciples to the curious uninitiated first-timers to the outcasts and others who find solace in the ritual, all are welcome to escape the travails of daily life and to become one with the enthralling GHOST ritual. Tune into the band's own GTV for exclusive coverage of all things GHOST and SKELETOUR, as host Vanessa Warwick welcomes any and all to join the Ghoulbangers' Ball for in-depth and behind the scenes coverage.