John Mayer Rules Hot 200 With 'Battle Studies'

John Mayer scores his second No.1 album with "Battle Studies". His fourth solo studio effort rules Billboard Hot 200, selling around 286,000 copies since being released across United States on November 17. "Thank you from the bottom of my heart!! What a way to spend Thanksgiving," he tweeted after learning his victory on the U.S. albums chart.

Norah Jones' "The Fall" which also arrived on November 17 debuts at No. 3 with 180,000 units behind Andrea Bocelli's "My Christmas" which stays firm on the second place since last week. Rounding up the Top 5 on the chart are Casting Crowns' "Until the Whole World Hears" and 50 Cent's "Before I Self Destruct" respectively.

Norah fails to follow the previous glory she experienced through "Not Too Late" which debuted atop the chart with 405,000 in February 2007. Casting Crowns, meanwhile, have their best sales week ever with 167,000. As for Fiddy, this rapper suffers the lowest opening week on his career, pulling only 160,000 copies.

"For myself, I'm asking myself, 'What did you expect, bro? Your fans got it when it was available, at the first available opportunity,' " Fiddy said during a recent radio interview. "For me this album is a prequel - it's full circle. When the energy around a project is the way this is, you can't really feel like it's a failure."

"Like, I look at the numbers and am like, 'What is this?' I've already assessed that the album has been out a month before its actual release period [due to an online leak, and the album's early digital release due to the leak]. So when you got that, you go, 'Well, what did you actually expect?' "

YouTube singing sensation Justin Bieber, furthermore, enters the chart at No. 6. His debut album "My World" has sold more than 137,000 copies in its first week. A couple steps down, Kris Allen sits at No. 11, garnering 80,000 units with his self-titled album "Kris Allen". It gives the winner of "American Idol" season 8 the lowest first week sales for any Idol winner in the show's eight-season history.

A spokesperson for Kris' label Jive Records, however, says there is nothing to worry about. "We 150 percent believe in the Kris Allen record," the rep told Entertainment Weekly. "And the indicators of radio growth and digital single sales prove we're correct." Kris' lead single "Live Like We're Dying" reaches Billboard Hot 100 at No. 70 this week.

John Mayer is predicted to give the first position to Susan Boyle next week as the runner-up of "Britain's Got Talent" is estimated to easily sell 600,000 copies with her debut album "I Dreamed a Dream".

Top 10 of Billboard Hot 200:

1. "Battle Studies" - John Mayer
2. "My Christmas" - Andrea Bocelli
3. "The Fall" - Norah Jones
4. "Until the Whole World Hears" - Casting Crowns
5. "Before I Self Destruct" - 50 Cent
6. "My World" - Justin Bieber
7. "This Is It" - Michael Jackson
8. "The Twilight Saga's New Moon" soundtrack - various artists
9. "Play On" - Carrie Underwood
10. "Fearless" - Taylor Swift