Ghost earns highest-charting career album with ‘Impera’

Forget “little sunshine,” call Ghost little chart-toppers.

The Swedish metal outfit’s latest album, Impera, has debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, a career-high for frontman Tobias Forge and his band of Nameless Ghouls. They had previously peaked on the chart at number three, with 2018’s Prequelle.

In its first week, Impera moved a total of 70,000 equivalent album units. In terms of traditional album sales, Impera’s 62,500 copies gives it the best-selling week of any album in 2022.

According to Billboard, Impera is the Billboard 200’s highest-charting rock album since John Mayer‘s Sob Rock also debuted at number two in July 2021, though we’d hazard to guess that Ghost fans may not consider the “Your Body Is a Wonderland” artist as “rock.” Billboard also says that Impera‘s chart performance is the best for any “hard rock” album since AC/DC‘s comeback effort, Power Up, debuted at number one in November 2020.

Impera, the fifth Ghost album, was released March 11. It includes the singles “Hunter’s Moon” and “Call Me Little Sunshine.”