Justin Bieber has taken down One Direction.
Both the artist and the attractive quartet of Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Liam Tomlinson and Liam Payne released new studio albums on Friday, November 13.
But that’s where the similarities come to an end.
Because Bieber pretty much blew his cute competition out of the water.
By selling 522,000 albums in one week, “Purpose” joins “My World 2.0,” “Under The Mistletoe,” “Never Say Never: The Remixes,” “Believe” and “Believe Acoustic” as top-selling records for Bieber.
This figure also makes “Purpose” the most popular album of 2015; the most popular in general since Taylor Swift’s “1989” last October; and the most popular since Eminem came out with an album in 2013.
“OUR WORK IS DONE HERE,” Bieber’s manager, Scotter Braun, wrote on Instagram on Friday, adding:
“#1 album #PURPOSE @justinbieber @sb_projects People stopped believing. We didn’t. Like I said…we love being the underdog.
“Thanks for believing with us and believing in him. Congrats Jb. That’s one amazing album. Welcome back.”
One Direction, meanwhile, sold 402,000 albums. Which is far from shabby.
Both Bieber and One Direction had their moments at the American Music Awards on Sunday night:
The former closed the ceremony with a medley of hits; while One Direction won Best Artist for the second year in a row.
With Styles and company now taking a one or maybe even two-year hiatus, it doesn’t look like this feud will have very many legs in the weeks and months ahead.
But when One Direction returns in 2017 or 2018? Look out, Justin! They’ll be coming for their musical revenge!
