Judas Priest lands its third No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Hard Rock Albums chart, as Invincible Shield starts atop the ranking dated March 23.
Invincible Shield bows with 25,000 equivalent album units earned March 8-14 in the U.S., according to Luminate. Of that sum, 23,000 units are via album sales.
It’s the first new No. 1 on Top Hard Rock Albums in 2024; every week since the Nov. 4, 2023, list, the survey had been ruled by Queen’s Greatest Hits (as part of its 160-week run atop the ranking in all). The last new ruler had been Beartooth’s The Surface, which premiered at No. 1 on the Oct. 28, 2023, chart.
Judas Priest’s previous leaders on Top Hard Rock Albums, which began in 2007, are 2014’s Redeemer of Souls and 2018’s Firepower.
Concurrently, Invincible Shield starts at No. 6 on Top Rock & Alternative Albums and at No. 4 on Top Rock Albums. On the all-format Billboard 200, it begins at No. 18, the 13th top 40 for the veteran rockers; they first reached that area when British Steel peaked at No. 34 in 1980.
The lead single from Invincible Shield is “Crown of Horns,” which jumps 34-28 on Mainstream Rock Airplay. It’s the band’s first airplay appearance since “Lightning Strike” peaked at No. 21 on Mainstream Rock Airplay in 2018.
Its title track, “Invincible Shield,” also premieres on the multi-metric Hot Hard Rock Songs chart, Judas Priest’s first entry (it debuted in 2020), at No. 16. It earned 621,000 official U.S. streams.
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