Ghost are, Like, REALLY, REALLY Popular!

Following yesterday’s revelation that The Agonist are way more popular than we thought, today we learn that Ghost are crazy, crazy popular.

I know, I know: this shouldn’t come as a shock. It’s not as if we didn’t already know Ghost have become a worldwide phenomenon. They’ve been on an upward trajectory ever since they’ve been a band, and they’ve always attracted metalheads and normies alike.

But still, it’s mighty impressive to see numbers like this: Loudwire reports that Ghost’s Popestar EP, which came out on September 16th, scanned 21,000 units in its first week of sales. Twenty one thousand!

By contrast, 2016 releases by Whitechapel and Gojira — some of the biggest bands in metal not named Metallica — sold 8,000 and 17,000 units, respectively. Ghost’s last full-length, Meliora, sold 28,575 units, which is also a helluva lot. Popestar, with a very short release window and not a whole lot of a promotion, sold twenty-one thousand — and it’s only an EP! That number includes physical, digital and streaming statistics (with 1,500 streams counting as equivalent to one album sale).

If any band is poised to break free of the metal world’s shackles and crossover into the mainstream, it’s Ghost. It’ll be interesting to watch their next move; if they decide to really go for it and write a full, radio-ready album, the time is now.

Ghost are on tour in North America right this moment; get dates here. They don’t have any UK or European dates scheduled at the moment, but if you are a UK fan hoping for a ticket you can also try your luck on this site, considered as the best UK casino portal 2016.