Metallica's Metallica debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200.
The achievement made it the band's first album to reach the top of that chart. It arrived after Metallica had already built a strong following through albums such as Master of Puppets and ...And Justice for All, but The Black Album expanded that audience dramatically.
The record remained at number one for four consecutive weeks. Its chart performance was supported by a sequence of highly visible singles, including "Enter Sandman," "The Unforgiven," "Nothing Else Matters," "Wherever I May Roam," and "Sad but True."
The album's chart result is sometimes confused with its year-end position. Billboard listed it at number 62 for 1991 and number seven for 1992, because those rankings measure an entire calendar year rather than the album's peak weekly position. Its long chart run also continued for decades after release.