My Chemical Romance’s ‘The Black Parade’ Jumps 139 Spots to No. 1, 20 Years After Release

My Chemical Romance’s The Black Parade jumped from No. 139 to No. 1 on the Billboard 200, giving the New Jersey rock band its first chart-topping album 20 years after the record’s 2006 release. Billboard announced the result on Sunday, Nov. 1, for the chart dated Nov. 7, after a 20th-anniversary deluxe reissue.

The album earned 78,000 equivalent album units in the United States in the week ending Oct. 29, up 653%, according to Luminate data reported by Billboard. The Black Parade first debuted and peaked at No. 2 in 2006 and had remained the band’s highest-charting album until this week.

How The Black Parade reached No. 1

Physical sales did most of the work. Pure album sales reached 68,000, up 2,082% from the prior week, and vinyl accounted for 42,000 of those, the band’s best week ever on vinyl, Billboard reported. The reissue came in more than 20 physical variants on vinyl, CD and cassette, including signed editions, and all versions are combined for chart purposes.

Streaming added 10,000 streaming equivalent album units, up 34%, which equals 10.14 million on-demand official streams of the album’s tracks. Track sales contributed a negligible amount. The album also surged from No. 29 to No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart.

The band has been celebrating the album on its “Long Live the Black Parade” tour since July 2025, including a five-night stand at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles in October. The trek is slated to end Nov. 22 in Indonesia, according to Billboard. The Associated Press noted that the tour opened in Seattle on July 11, 2025.

By the numbers: a record wait

The Black Parade’s 20-year wait to reach No. 1 is the longest ever for an album, Billboard said, surpassing the 15-year, nine-month wait for Toby Keith’s 35 Biggest Hits after the country singer’s death in 2024. By The Boston Report’s math, the new record beats the old one by more than four years.

The band itself waited 22 years and four months from its first Billboard 200 appearance, with Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge on the chart dated June 26, 2004, to its first No. 1. That makes My Chemical Romance the third act in 2026 to wait at least 10 years from a chart debut to a first No. 1, after Megadeth in February and Jhené Aiko in September.

The 139-to-1 leap is the biggest jump to No. 1 since Taylor Swift’s Fearless (Taylor’s Version) climbed 157-1 on the chart dated Oct. 16, 2021, after signed CD and vinyl versions were released. By TBR’s calculation, the album’s 78,000 units were 14,000 more than Olivia Rodrigo’s runner-up total of 64,000, a margin of about 22%.

Vinyl alone made up about 54% of the album’s units and 62% of its sales, by TBR’s math. Without the vinyl copies, the remaining 36,000 units would have placed it between Noah Kahan’s The Great Divide at No. 5 and Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl at No. 6.

The rest of the top 10

The Nos. 2 through 6 albums are all former No. 1s. Olivia Rodrigo’s you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love fell to No. 2 with 64,000 units, down 15%. Morgan Wallen’s I’m the Problem held at No. 3 with 53,000, Ella Langley’s Dandelion stayed at No. 4 with 47,000, Kahan’s The Great Divide rose to No. 5 with 39,000, and Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl slipped to No. 6 with 35,000.

Zach Bryan’s Young Manhood and Other Donatable Organs fell from No. 2 to No. 7 in its second week with 33,000 units, down 49%. Kahan’s Stick Season held at No. 8 with 32,000, Drake’s HABIBTI dipped to No. 9 with 31,000, and Olivia Dean’s The Art of Loving fell to No. 10 with 30,000.

The Black Parade is also the latest reissue to make a splash this year, following the Beatles’ Rubber Soul and Mac Miller’s The Divine Feminine in October and Beyoncé’s B’Day in September, Billboard noted. The full chart posts on Billboard’s website on Tuesday, Nov. 3. The milestone caps a busy stretch in music news, after Taylor Swift became the youngest member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and Jay-Z was named headliner of the Super Bowl LXI halftime show.

The album’s best-known song, “Welcome to the Black Parade,” remains the band’s highest-charting Billboard Hot 100 hit, peaking at No. 9 in January 2007, and spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the Alternative Airplay chart in late 2006. Variety and other outlets reported the milestone as the band’s first No. 1 album in its career.

Sources

• Billboard: My Chemical Romance earns first No. 1 album on Billboard 200 after The Black Parade reissue (Nov. 1, 2026)
• AP: How My Chemical Romance’s The Black Parade hit No. 1 in the US, 20 years later (Nov. 2, 2026)
• Variety: My Chemical Romance scores first No. 1 with The Black Parade
• Hypebeast: The Black Parade reaches No. 1 on the Billboard 200