Zach Bryan’s “American Heartbreak” Hits #1, Beats Projections

Zach Bryan has officially ensconced himself as an independent country music superstar, doing what only a select few other non radio-supported artists have done through grassroots support in the past, which is score a #1 album in country music. But for the former Navy enlistee turned viral songwriter, the scenario and ascent seems even more improbable.
Zach Bryan’s new album American Heartbreak debuts at #1 in country this week, beating out early estimates by racking up 82 million total song streams. Combine that with 6,000 physical album sales and downloads, and this gives Zach Bryan a total of 71,000 in sales and streaming equivalents. Early estimates had him at some 70 million streams and 67K in sales, so interest in the album only grew stronger over the week, and he blew out expectations.
These numbers are also good enough for a #5 placement for American Heartbreak in all of music. If it wasn’t for competing with a monster new release from Harry Styles, and Kendrick Lamar’s new album from the previous week, Zach Bryan would could have easily been at #3 all genre. This is also far and away the best debut for a country artist in 2022, while American Heartbreak also set 2022 records on both Spotify and Apple music for the amount of first day streams for a country title.
But it isn’t just the fact that American Heartbreak has 34 tracks that is bolstering Zach Bryan’s numbers. He also has a bona fide hit on his hands with the song “Something in the Orange.” The song is once again the #2 streaming song in all of country music this week, receiving 12 million streams on its own.
Zach Bryan joins Blackberry Smoke, Aaron Watson, Sturgill Simpson, Tyler Childers, Jason Isbell, and Whiskey Myers in the #1 album club—an achievement that used to be considered impossible a decade ago, then became a bit easier a few years ago before streaming became the main way consumers listen to music, and Morgan Wallen released his own monster album Dangerous: The Double Album, which has been at the top of the charts for the better part of two years, denying #1 albums even from major mainstream stars such as Miranda Lambert.
What makes this achievement especially remarkable is the very amateur nature of Zach Bryan’s ascent, starting out in 2019 with a few viral videos pushed in part by Parker McCollum, and then recording his debut album DeAnn in an AirBNB, and releasing it entirely independently. Still enlisted full time in the Navy and subject to long-term deployments at the time, Zach Bryan contributed to his burgeoning music career when he could until it reached critical mass and he’d fulfilled his military commitments, receiving an honorary discharge in 2021.
Now Zach Bryan is arguably the hottest independent country music artist out there, and is about to embark on his American Heartbreak Tour starting in Salt Lake City on June 2nd.
The next question will be where Zach Bryan goes from here. Commonly what we see from independent country albums cresting the charts is a sharp fall off the very next week. But with the amount of tracks on American Heartbreak, the fact that it has a hit song in “Something in the Orange,” and how Zach Bryan has defied expectations at every turn, it could very well become a perennial at the top of the country charts, at least for the time being, similar to titles from Morgan Wallen, Luke Combs, Chris Stapleton, and Tyler Childers.
Zach Bryan hitting #1 became inevitable a few weeks ago. Now the question is if Zach Bryan will further disrupt the order in the mainstream by staying at or near the top for an extended period. Stay tuned.
May 31, 2022 @ 11:42 am
I think he’s pretty good, but listening to American Heartbreak, I don’t know if I’d call it country. I know the is/isn’t country discussions can get tiresome, but since we just put Wilco through this why not throw it out there.
May 31, 2022 @ 12:31 pm
“American Heartbreak” is a country-inspired singer/songwriter album. I wouldn’t call it not country enough to be considered for the Billboard Country Albums chart, especially when you consider many of the selections on there are not country at all. It is more country than it is anything else, and more country than most of its peers. I don’t have a problem with it on country charts.
It’s also significantly more country than the Wilco album.
May 31, 2022 @ 1:04 pm
There is at least one full album’s worth of country and western there. But there is another album’s worth of indie folk and a third that’s Springsteen/Petty style Americana rock.
Exactly what you call country is kind of a moving target anyhow but it tends to be what appeals to country folks. And it seems to me that he’s a rural version of Springsteen writing about the youth out there in flyover country.
May 31, 2022 @ 1:40 pm
I personally agree with you. I didn’t make it through the album.
May 31, 2022 @ 11:54 am
All the power to him..
I’ve had the time to sit down with the album and am pretty familiar with it as a whole now. My wife has been pretty infatuated with it as well and I hear her playing it quite a bit.
Even with the critiques, it still stands as a pretty solid work that he can be proud of.
I’m rooting for him.
May 31, 2022 @ 11:59 am
Amazing album, well deserved, dude is humble as heck and just a good guy writing some amazing songs that connect with some passionate fans. Love to see it! Go Zach Go!
May 31, 2022 @ 12:20 pm
Cold Damn Vampires gonna be in the finale of Yellowstone next year. Mark my words
May 31, 2022 @ 12:26 pm
“by racking up 82 million total song streams”
Thirty-four songs sure helps in this age of streaming. Six thousand physical copies is insignificant. I’m happy to see this young man understand the pond he’s swimming in.
May 31, 2022 @ 12:34 pm
6,000 physical copies is a big number in 2022. His next closest competition was Morgan Wallen with 1,300 copies. If Zach had vinyl, I’m sure that number would have been much higher. The vinyl shortage is really depressing these physical numbers. Fans will just stream the album, and wait for the vinyl to arrive.
May 31, 2022 @ 1:14 pm
In 2022. It’s relative. 6k is a seating section in a stadium.
May 31, 2022 @ 2:56 pm
Well that’s cool. I wasn’t too impressed with the album and very little is pure country but that’s fine, it’s got to chart somewhere. Good for him.
May 31, 2022 @ 12:44 pm
Sort of inaccurate. There are lots of long albums that dont make it to number 1, nor do they have the sort of hype this thing does. There were and probably are still people on twitter commenting “I havent listened to anything other than AH in over a week”, “I’m going on a 12 hour car trip, and its AH the whole way”. Trigger’s original review touched on why Zach is a huge deal, and a large part of that is the fans. They are driving the bus here, he maintains a pretty loose and easy social media presence (he responds to fans and does the gram, but he isnt posting 40 times in a day). This thing is being spread by word of mouth and hype. That sort of minimizing statement was made about Dangerous too, and as a way to denigrate the artist and fanbase. Makes me think these folks havent been to a Zach or Morgan show, nor have they a basic understanding of Youtube etc to gauge how fans are responding to these artists. When fans sing every song on the setlist word for word, maybe its not just fake hype and the real deal. Just sayin.
May 31, 2022 @ 1:16 pm
I used “helps” advisedly. I’m glad Zach has his devoted fans.
May 31, 2022 @ 1:39 pm
Pretty incredible
May 31, 2022 @ 3:53 pm
Not surprised. I’m definitely more than a few of those.
May 31, 2022 @ 7:07 pm
Not too long ago, artists released music then supported it with a tour. Artists like Zach Bryan and Tyler Childers have flipped the script. They release music to support their touring. Some of Childers best songs have never been properly recorded (“Shake the Frost,” “Nose to the Grindstone,” “Take My Hounds to Heaven”). Do you think Bryan will take out “Condemned” or “Revival” for any of the songs from American Heartbreak? I don’t think this would work without social media, but it’s a sign of the changing times.
May 31, 2022 @ 7:25 pm
I remember the days when selling 150,000-250,000 wouldn’t even get you in the top 30 of the Billboard 200. No all it takes is 6000 units. Wow. Kind of renders #1 albums meaningless at this point. However, the steaming numbers are massive. Good on this young man. Hope he saves his money and enjoys the ride.
May 31, 2022 @ 7:36 pm
“I remember the days when selling 150,000-250,000 wouldn’t even get you in the top 30 of the Billboard 200. No all it takes is 6000 units. Wow. Kind of renders #1 albums meaningless at this point. However, the steaming numbers are massive.”
You kind of answered your own question there. It’s not that these artists are so lame they can barely sell any physical copies. It’s that the vast, vast majority of consumer, young and old, now stream their music. You combine that with the massive backlog in vinyl which people tend to purchase more than CDs these days, and this is what you get. Again, you have to look at what his peers did. If the next highest country artist only sold 1,200 copies (Morgan Wallen), this means Zach Bryan actually sold 5 times the amount of physical copies as anyone else. In that context, it’s a ton.
June 1, 2022 @ 4:13 pm
It wasn’t a question, it was a statement (one that didn’t require an answer.) Nor did I call any artist lame. What is lame is how the whole illegal downloading and now streaming services have mostly destroyed the music industry. Good for guys like Zach who can make some scratch via the current model.
June 1, 2022 @ 5:19 pm
“What is lame is how the whole illegal downloading and now streaming services have mostly destroyed the music industry.”
Seriously not trying to be condescending, but illegal downloading of music hasn’t been relevant for a decade. And the music industry is more profitable than ever. It’s specifically due to streaming.
June 1, 2022 @ 7:56 am
All these comments about “I remember the day and “not long ago…” as some sort of revelation, is amusing.
June 1, 2022 @ 4:15 pm
Revelation? They’re opinions arsehole. I mean, none as clever as most of the obtuse comments you post on here. ????
June 1, 2022 @ 5:07 pm
Observations seems more accurate. Revelatory observations perhaps…like me being an arsehole…nothing new. ????
June 2, 2022 @ 7:33 am
His is a good story and his success is deserved. Good luck to him. I am waiting to grab a physical copy of the album but I like the tracks I have heard so far.
June 3, 2022 @ 9:36 am
Zach Bryan is signed to Warner. American Heartbreak was released on Warner. Could you say more about what you mean by calling him, and the album, independent? Do you just mean that it was produced outside of the Nashville machine? (If that’s what you mean, that’s true, but it still doesn’t seem independent to me… one of the producers has worked with Vance Joy and the Lumineers.) Or maybe you mean that Bryan /was/ independent, because he came up outside of the machine?
June 3, 2022 @ 9:57 am
Zach Bryan is signed to Belting Broncos Records, distributed by Warner. Zach is the owner of Belting Broncos Records. As I said in the review, Warner has done little to nothing for this release. They didn’t even send out a press release. This is basically an independent release. Zach also has the #3 song in all of country with “Something in the Orange,” and the #2 streamed song, according to Billboard. “Something in the Orange” is receiving ZERO spins at mainstream country radio. There are no features on Zach Bryan in major publications. There is no support for him at CMT. He has never been recognized by any awards organizations. Zach Bryan is about as independent as it gets.
June 3, 2022 @ 10:04 am
Thanks. That’s helpful, I see what you mean: ‘independent’ in your sense is ‘not receiving support from Nashville institutions’. If that’s the criterion, I agree that he’s independent. It seems Spotify has been promoting this album a bunch, but I know Spotify isn’t necessarily a Nashville institution.
June 4, 2022 @ 5:06 pm
Hopefully he stays independent and doesn’t get sucked into the “Nashville machine”!