Sleep Token's Even in Arcadia Debuts Atop the Billboard 200 Chart, Proving There's Still an Appetite for Hard Rock

Before this month, no hard rock act had topped the Billboard 200 albums chart in nearly a half-decade. Now, two have done it in three weeks.

Before this month, no hard rock act had topped the Billboard 200 albums chart in nearly a half-decade. Now, two have done it in three weeks.

Two weeks ago, Ghost nabbed the chart’s top spot with its Skeletá set, and this week (on the chart dated May 25), Sleep Token claims pole position for the first time with its new album Even in Arcadia. The album bows with 127,000 units, according to Luminate — with over 50,000 each in sales and streaming equivalent albums — while all 10 of its tracks appear on this week’s Billboard Hot 100, albeit in the chart’s lower half.

How did Sleep Token end up netting such explosive first-week numbers? And what does it mean for the mainstream embrace of hard rock in general? Billboard staffers answer these questions and more below.

1. Sleep Token’s Even in Arcadia debuts atop the Billboard 200 this week with 127,000 units — its first No. 1 on the chart. Is that performance better, worse or about what you would’ve expected from it?

Frankly, any rock album — broadly defined — topping the Billboard 200 in 2025 surprises me; that Sleep Token managed to do 62% and 72% of Bad Bunny and Tate McRae’s respective first-week units from earlier this year is something the anonymous band should be proud of. But the fact that it was Sleep Token that slipped through in a somewhat quiet week on the chart tracks: This type of loud, rap-inflected rock music is what’s broken through to the mainstream most effectively in recent years.

This is about what I would have expected from them. Their buzz was incredibly strong before they even began to roll out Arcadia. Their last album Take Me Back to Eden hit No. 16 on the Billboard 200 back in 2023, which was very surprising considering all eyes were on Hip-Hop for its 50th birthday. Not to mention, all three of Arcadia’s advance tracks hit the Hot 100 heading into its release. You throw in dozens of TikTok conspiracy theories surrounding the band’s lore and, yep, I think fans were really eager to dive into this album.

Definitely better. My Billboard 200 expectations for non-legacy hard rock bands in the 2020s are basically in the basement.

The performance of the singles leading up to Even in Arcadia, combined with upcoming sold-out arena dates and the band’s new partnership with RCA Records, suggested a career-best bow for Sleep Token — but a six-figure, No. 1 debut for a hard rock act is increasingly rare, especially for a band that’s not a decades-running brand name like Metallica or Tool. Even the most bullish Sleep Token fans couldn’t have foreseen a debut with 127,000 equivalent album units, considering that it’s a number without much recent precedent.

I’m surprised by how not surprised I am. Sleep Token is exactly the sort of cult rock act who sells well with his devoted fanbase, and now that they’re also the sort of act who debuts on the Hot 100 with all three of your album’s advance tracks — and not just in the 80s or 90s, but as high as No. 34 (with “Caramel”) — clearly their streaming prowess is quite considerable as well. I might’ve guessed a little lower for its final first-week tally, but I would have guessed six digits. And that’s pretty wild for a rock band in 2025.

2. One of the more notable things about Arcadia’s first-week performance — particularly as far as rock albums go — is its relatively even split in terms of sales and streams: 73,500 in sales and 53,000 streaming equivalent album units. Which of those two numbers is more significant, do you think?

The streaming figure is more significant to me, because it demonstrates that the album’s popularity extends beyond diehards who might have already been committed to buying it. With such a high streaming number, Even In Arcadia was likely making its way to plenty of new Sleep Token listeners — and resonating enough with existing ones that they were returning to it after release.

The sales number is definitely telling in regards to the chokehold Sleep Token lore has on the group’s supporters. Fans have been dissecting their lyrics and digging for easter eggs for months now, and it’s become less about trying to learn the band’s identity and more about engaging in the world Sleep Token is building. I think fans thought they’d learn more information if they bought physical copies of the record,