Pearl Jam’s album Vs. sold almost a million copies in its first week of release. The band’s second studio album arrived in the United States on October 19, 1993, following the huge success of its debut, Ten.
Vs. sold 950,378 copies in its first five days, setting a SoundScan-era record for the most albums sold during a first week. It surpassed the previous record held by Guns N’ Roses’ Use Your Illusion II and sold more copies that week than all the other albums in Billboard’s Top 10 combined.
The album’s rawer sound included songs such as “Go,” “Daughter,” “Animal,” and “Dissident.” Pearl Jam deliberately reduced its promotional activity after Ten, declining to make conventional music videos for the new singles. The record remained the first-week sales champion until Garth Brooks’ Double Live sold 1.08 million copies in 1998. Strictly speaking, Vs. reached its figure in five tracking days, but the quiz’s “almost a million in one week” description is standard shorthand.