Luke Bryan's 'Crash My Party' Debuts at No. 1 on Billboard 200

It's official: Luke Bryan's "Crash My Party" has debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart with the third-largest sales week of the year.

The country star's new album sold just under 528,000 copies in the week ending Sunday, Aug. 18. It's Bryan's second No. 1, following the compilation "Spring Break… Here to Party," which also opened atop the list earlier this year.

Only the debuts of Justin Timberlake's "The 20/20 Experience" (968,000) and Jay Z's "Magna Carta… Holy Grail" (slightly over 528,000) have captured bigger weeks than "Crash" this year.

The rest of the new Billboard 200 chart's top 10 will be revealed on Wednesday, Aug. 21.

More impressively, "Crash's" bow is the biggest for an album by a male country artist in nearly nine years. The last set by a country gent to post a bigger frame was Tim McGraw's "Live Like You Were Dying," which sold 766,000 in its first week (Nov. 2004).

Further, since 2008, only two country artists have sold more than a half-million copies of an album in a single week: Bryan and Taylor Swift. The latter has seen half-million (or more) bows with each of her last three studio albums. "Red" started with 1.21 million last year, while 2010's "Speak Now" bowed with 1.05 million and 2008's "Fearless" launched with 592,000.

To promote "Crash My Party" last week, Bryan appeared on E!'s "Chelsea Lately" and performed on ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live" (both on the set's release date, Aug. 13). He also appeared on NBC's "Today" twice -- on Aug. 15 and Aug. 16.

The new album's title track spent three weeks atop the Country Airplay chart in July. The set's latest single, "That's My Kind of Night," rises 20-16 on Country Airplay this week.