Album sold 436,000 in its first week, including a record 290,000 on iTunes. By Gil Kaufman Jay-Z and Kanye West Photo: Johnny Nunez/ WireImage The Throne will get a royal reception on the Billboard 200 albums charts next week. Watch the Throne , the superstar hookup between Kanye West and Jay-Z , sold more than 436,000 copies in its first week, according to figures provided by Nielsen SoundScan, putting up the second-biggest debut sales week of the year so far, behind Lady Gaga ‘s Born This Way, which moved 1.1 million. Thanks to a three-day iTunes exclusive that launched last Monday (August 8-10), the pair also reportedly broke the record for the biggest iTunes debut ever, selling almost 290,000 digital copies, enough to beat out former record-holder Coldplay ‘s Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, which sold 282,000 copies in 2008. According to Billboard , with 321,000 total downloads, Throne is second only to Born This Way (662,000) for the biggest digital week ever. See what fans thought of the Watch the Throne pop-up store, which appeared in NYC last week. The album might have sold more, but some experts said its staggered release — following the iTunes exclusive, it was available to all digital and physical sellers on Friday, giving fans only two days to snatch it up before SoundScan’s tracking week ended on Sunday — may have curtailed its first-week sales potential. Either way, it’s a huge score for both rappers, earning Jay his 12th #1 album and Kanye his fifth. There are a few other debuts in the top 10, but they pale in comparison to the Throne numbers. Country singer Luke Bryan ‘s Tailgates & Tanlines comes in at #2 (145,000), the Now 39 compilation is just behind at #3 (110,000) and rapper Ace Hood hits #8 with Blood Sweat & Tears (26,000). The rest of the top 10: Adele ‘s 21 (#4, 73,000), Eric Church ‘s Chief (#5, 37,000), Jason Aldean ‘s My Kinda Party (#6, 36,000), Beyonc
