Harry Styles Debuts at No. 1 on Billboard 200 With ‘Fine Line’ Album

Harry Styles‘ sophomore solo studio album, Fine Line, has debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart.

The album also earned the third-biggest debut this year after earning 478,000 equivalent album units in its opening week. Of that sum, 393,000 units consisted of traditional album sales. 

Styles’ sophomore effort came dangerously close to surpassing Post Malone‘s Hollywood’s Bleeding, which debuted with 489,000 album units, while Lover by Taylor Swift continues to hold down the 2019 crown with 867,000 units. The first-week success of Fine Line, which also reached No. 1 in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Sweden, among other countries, has already made it this year’s sixth-biggest album. 

Fine Line doubled Styles’ self-titled debut album, which amassed 230,000 units in its first week. The overwhelmingly positive commercial response to his latest project proves that the 25-year-old singer’s intention to “have fun” this time around was well-received. 

“When I listen to the first album now, I can hear all of the places where I feel like I was playing it safe, because I just didn’t want to get it wrong,” he told Zane Lowe. “… I kind of went into the second one feeling like I want to work out how to make all of this feel really fun.” 

“Making this record felt like—I just felt… so much more joyous,” Styles continued. “And I was with my friends and we were in Malibu … I felt so safe. It was like, ‘I want to take some mushrooms? I’m going to take some—like now is the time to have fun.”