Nielsen SoundScan reported that Metallica's The Black Album sold 598,000 copies in its first US week.
That opening helped the album debut at number one on the Billboard 200, a first for Metallica. The result was especially notable because the band had built its reputation through heavy touring and a fiercely loyal metal audience rather than conventional pop exposure.
SoundScan tracking began in 1991 and used electronically collected retail data to measure music sales. The Black Album became one of the system's most important long-term success stories, continuing to sell steadily rather than disappearing after its initial release period.
The figure is sometimes reported differently in secondary accounts because early sales estimates and later chart summaries are not always identical. The album article gives 598,000 for the first week. That number should not be confused with its worldwide sales, its later US total, or the separate figure sometimes cited for first-week shipments.