After nearly four decades on the charts, MEGADETH has finally claimed its first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 with their self-titled final studio release. The album debuted at the top spot on the chart dated February 7, 2026, marking a career milestone for the iconic metal band.
MEGADETH first entered the Billboard 200 in 1986 with Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying? and has since placed 23 albums on the ranking. Prior to this week, the band’s highest position came in 1992 with Countdown to Extinction, which peaked at No. 2. As Billboard reports, the new album earned 73,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. for the week ending January 29, making it the band’s best week in terms of units since Billboard began tracking multi-metric consumption in December 2014.
The majority of those units came from traditional album sales, which totaled 69,000—the highest for MEGADETH since Risk opened with 74,000 copies sold in 1999. Physical formats also shone, with 56,000 copies purchased in CD, vinyl, and cassette formats, including 22,000 vinyl units—their best week on vinyl since electronic tracking began in 1991. Boosted by multiple vinyl variants, a Target-exclusive CD with a bonus track, and a deluxe digital edition, the album also racked up 4,000 streaming equivalent units, translating to over 4 million on-demand streams.
Released on January 23, just a day after the documentary Megadeth: Behind the Mask hit theaters, the album is part of the band’s farewell chapter, with their final tour kicking off on February 15 in Victoria, British Columbia.
Reeder, the visionary behind Metal Addicts, has transformed his lifelong passion for metal into a thriving online community for metal aficionados. As a fervent devotee of black metal, Reeder is captivated by its dark, atmospheric, and often unorthodox soundscapes.