Niall Horan Helps One Direction Tie a Beatles Chart Record

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One Direction now shares something big with the Beatles: Both groups are the only ones to have had three members reach No. 1 on the Billboard chart with solo albums.

That is thanks to Niall Horan, whose new album, “Flicker” (Capitol), opened on top with the equivalent of 152,000 sales, including 128,000 copies sold as a full album and 26 million streams, according to Nielsen. As with recent albums by Pink, the Killers, Shania Twain and Katy Perry, Mr. Horan’s sales were helped by a marketing bundle that included the CD of “Flicker” in the cost of a concert ticket.

Mr. Horan follows his former band mates Zayn Malik (No. 1 in April 2016) and Harry Styles (No. 1 this May) to the top of the chart. Among the Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison all went to No. 1 with solo albums, while Ringo Starr remains stalled at No. 2. (Liam Payne, the heat is now on you.)

Also this week, Future and Young Thug’s mixtape “Super Slimey” (Epic/300) opened at No. 2 with 87 million streams — the vast majority of its 75,000 sales equivalents — and the country singer Chris Young started at No. 5 with “Losing Sleep” (RCA Nashville).

Pink’s “Beautiful Trauma,” which opened at No. 1 last week, lost 84 percent of its sales in Week 2, but fell only two spots to No. 3, avoiding the second-week plunges suffered recently by the Killers and the rapper NF. The rapper Post Malone holds at No. 4 with “Stoney” in that album’s 46th week on the chart.

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