Will Twenty One Pilots ‘Breach’ the Top of the Billboard 200 for the First Time Since 2015?

The Contenders is a midweek file that looks astatine artists aiming for the apical of the Billboard charts, and the strategies down their efforts. This week, for the upcoming Billboard 200 dated Sept. 27, we look astatine the latest from alt-pop stars Twenty One Pilots and its likelihood of scoring its archetypal No. 1 since its breakout 10 years ago.  

Twenty One Pilots, Breach (Fueled by Ramen): It was almost exactly a decennary agone that Twenty One Pilots made the leap from cult favorites to popular stars, arsenic the duo of Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun scored its archetypal No. 1 medium connected the Billboard 200 with the blockbuster set Blurryface. The set ultimately spawned two apical 5 hits connected the Billboard Hot 100 (“Stressed Out” and “Ride”) and led to the Pilots winning champion caller creator astatine the 2017 Grammys, cementing it as 1 of the mid-2010s’ biggest breakout acts.  

In the decennary since, while Twenty One Pilots has receded from the apical 40 spotlight a bit, the duo has remained a apical touring enactment and a consistently successful albums enactment arsenic well. However, the No. 1 spot has remained elusive for the Pilots since Blurryface: 2018 follow-up Trench got stuck astatine No. 2 down Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper’s A Star Is Born soundtrack, while both 2021’s Scaled & Icy and 2024’s Clancy ended up debuting and topping retired astatine No. 3.  

Next week, the duo should person a bully accidental to interruption that drought. On Sept. 12, Joseph and Dun released Breach, considered the last installment successful the conceptual album series fans person followed from the duo since Blurryface. The acceptable was preceded by a brace of singles, “The Contract” and “Drum Show,” some of which person reached the apical 25 of Billboard’s Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart.  

Though the acceptable should watercourse respectably — the duo’s biggest 2010s hits are among the most-streamed songs of their era, though their 2020s singles haven’t produced akin numbers — astir of the album’s show volition undoubtedly travel via sales. To that end, the duo and its Fueled by Ramen statement are highly prepared: There are astatine slightest 15 vinyl variants disposable for acquisition of Breach, as good arsenic 3 deluxe CD boxed sets (with extended packaging and collectible items contained within), a wide disposable modular CD and some modular and...