Katy Perry has topped the US album chart in its worst week for sales since the early 1990s.
Prism, the singer’s fourth studio album, went to number one in the Billboard 200 chart on Wednesday despite overall sales for the week being the lowest since 1991.
The album sold 286,000 copies in its first week, according to figures from Nielsen SoundScan.
It is the biggest sales week by a female artist this year.
But the opening week sales of Prism did not come close to the year’s biggest debuts, led by Justin Timberlake’s The 20/20 Experience, which opened with 968,000 copies in March.
New albums from Jay Z, Kanye West and Daft Punk also opened with bigger sales earlier this year.
Overall album sales for the week ending 27 October fell to a record low of 4.5 million units, the lowest album total since Nielsen SoundScan started analysing American chart music sales in 1991.
Album sales have generally been lower this year compared with last year, partly because of listeners finding new digital platforms to consume music and often for free.
Katy Perry’s album came ahead of Miley Cyrus’ Bangerz, which sold 270,000 copies in its first week earlier this month.
Other new albums this week in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 chart include X Factor USA girl group Fifth Harmony at number six with their Better Together EP, hip hop DJ Khaled at seven with Suffering from Success and rockers AFI with Burials at number nine.
