Taylor Swift leads 2012′s final weekly albums chart, earning her seventh non-consecutive week at No. 1 with “Red.” The set sold 241,000 copies the week ending Dec. 30, according to Nielsen SoundScan, ending the year with more than 3 million sales, making it the year’s second best-selling album.
The soundtrack to “Les Miserables” reaches No. 2, marking Russell Crowe’s highest-ever showing on the Billboard 200 (not counting his name check on Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “Watch the Throne,” of course). One Direction, Bruno Mars and T.I. round out the top five. A bit further down the chart, the “Pitch Perfect” soundtrack — fueled by the film’s DVD release — lands at No. 10, which is good news for all of humanity.
With the holiday boom over, the sales charts are about to get icy cold. This is traditionally the slowest sales season of the year, and with no big releases on the horizon — unless you count the upcoming “Kidz Bop 23″ as a big release, which we don’t — the charts are getting ready to dip like the temperatures. Bundle up out there!
Billboard’s Top 10 albums (sales in parentheses, figures according to Nielsen SoundScan)
1. Taylor Swift, Red (241,000)
2. Various artists, Les Miserables Soundtrack (136,000)
3. One Direction, Take Me Home (120,000)
4. Bruno Mars, Unorthodox Junebox (110,000)
5. T.I., Trouble Man: Heavy is the Head (74,000)
6. Imagine Dragons, Night Visions (70,000)
7. Rihanna, Unapologetic (68,000)
8. Mumford & Sons, Babel (68,000)
9. The Lumineers, The Lumineers (61,000)
10. Various artists, Pitch Perfect Soundtrack (58,000)
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