Commercial Performance
The album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, selling 482,000 units in its first week and giving Knowles her third consecutive number one album in the US. Eventually, Knowles became the third female artist of the 2000s decade to have her first three albums debut at the top spot of the US Billboard 200 albums chart. Having sold 1,459,000 copies in 6 weeks of release in 2008 alone, I Am... Sasha Fierce emerged as the tenth best selling album of 2008 according to Billboard magazine. With this achievement, Knowles eventually equaled Garth Brooks, Mariah Carey, and Shania Twain for placing an album in Nielsen SoundScan's year-end top 10 for the fifth time. The album later emerged as the second best selling album of 2009 in the US itself. It has been certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). As of October 2012, the album has sold three million copies in the US. In the United Kingdom, the album debuted at number ten on November 29, 2008, becoming Knowles' lowest-debuting album despite having higher first week sales than her previous album, B'Day. Following Knowles' performance at the 2008 The X Factor finale with winner Alexandra Burke, the album moved up to number nine on December 27, 2008. Due to the success of its singles in the United Kingdom and especially due to the success of "Sweet Dreams", I Am... Sasha Fierce rose from number five to its highest peak of number two in its thirty-ninth week on the chart, which was the week of August 16, 2009.
In Australia, I Am... Sasha Fierce debuted at number nine in late November 2008 and peaked at number eight in early January 2009. Following the success of singles "Sweet Dreams" and "Broken-Hearted Girl", the album rebounded to a new peak of three on two separate occasions in October 2009 and it was certified triple-platinum on November 23, 2009. In New Zealand, the album debuted at number 16 in late November 2008 and initially peaked at number six in early March 2009. After growing popularity of its singles, especially "Sweet Dreams", the album upped to a new peak of three on September 21, 2009. The album was certified platinum on April 26, 2009, (after twenty-three weeks on the chart) shipping over 15,000 copies to retailers. In Spain, the album debuted and peaked at number 7 on November 26, 2008, and was certified platinum for shipment of over 60,000 copies on October 26, 2009. As of March 2011, the album has sold over seven million copies worldwide.
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Famous quotes containing the words commercial and/or performance:
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—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)
“What avails it that you are a Christian, if you are not purer than the heathen, if you deny yourself no more, if you are not more religious? I know of many systems of religion esteemed heathenish whose precepts fill the reader with shame, and provoke him to new endeavors, though it be to the performance of rites merely.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)