My Chemical Romance Reaches No. 1 on the Billboard 200 With 'The Black Parade', 20 Years On

My Chemical Romance has its first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200, the main US album chart, with The Black Parade. The 2006 record climbs from No. 139 to No. 1 on the chart dated Nov. 7, according to Billboard. The full chart goes up on Billboard's website on Nov. 3.

The Billboard 200 ranks albums each week by counting sales, streams and some track sales together. The climb followed the release of a 20th anniversary deluxe reissue of the album, which includes bonus tracks.

Billboard credits Luminate, the company that tracks sales and streams for the industry, with 78,000 equivalent album units for the week ending Oct. 29, up 653%. Equivalent album units are the chart's way of turning streams and track sales into album-sale equivalents. Of that total, 68,000 were pure album sales, up 2,082%.

Vinyl made up 42,000 of those sales, the band's best week on vinyl. The album was sold in more than 20 physical versions across vinyl, CD and cassette, including signed editions. Billboard says all versions are combined for chart purposes, so every variant counts toward one album.

Streaming added 10,000 equivalent album units, up 34%, which equals 10.14 million on-demand streams of the album's tracks.

The album first debuted and peaked at No. 2 in 2006. It had been the band's highest-charting album until this week. Billboard says the 20-year gap is the longest wait for an album to reach No. 1, passing the 15 years and nine months it took Toby Keith's 35 Biggest Hits.

The band's path was longer still. From the Billboard 200 debut of its earlier album Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge on the chart dated June 26, 2004, to this first No. 1 took 22 years and four months. Billboard also notes that My Chemical Romance is the third act in 2026 to wait at least 10 years from a Billboard 200 debut to a first No. 1.

The album has also done well in the UK. The 20th anniversary edition gave the band its first UK No. 1 on the Official Albums Chart, as Billboard reported on Oct. 30.

The title track, "Welcome to the Black Parade", reached No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100, the main US singles chart, in January 2007. That remains the band's highest position on that chart. It also spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the Alternative Airplay chart, which tracks rock radio, in late 2006. It is the band's only No. 1 on that chart.

The band has been playing the album on tour since July 2025. The trek is due to finish on Nov. 22 in Indonesia. Rolling Stone reviewed the first show of a five-night run at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles in October.

Behind a number like 42,000 vinyl sales are pressing plants, record shops and shipping staff who get the records to buyers. A chart week is the end of a long run of work for all of them.