My Chemical Romance Take First Number One With 20-Year-Old Album

My Chemical Romance have scored their first Billboard 200 Number One in nearly 25 years as a band — with a 20-year-old album. The Black Parade (20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition), released October 23, took the top slot with 78,000 equivalent album units sold across more than 20 formats and variants, according to Billboard.

The original Black Parade, the band's third LP, arrived in 2006 and debuted at Number Two. A fully fledged rock opera in the vein of Queen, it produced the Top Ten hit "Welcome to the Black Parade" and has since become a seminal rock record of the 21st century. The anniversary campaign finally carried it one position higher than its debut — two decades later.

Physical sales drove the chart win. On Friday, the band also landed their first Number One on the UK's official album chart.

Who did they beat?

The reissue outpaced Olivia Rodrigo's You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So In Love. Midweek predictions had shown My Chemical Romance leading by roughly a thousand sales. On Wednesday, Rodrigo cheered the band on, posting a clip from their show at New York's Citi Field, which she attended earlier this year, captioned with a string of pink hearts and the band's handle. At that same show, she met the band and photographed with them backstage.

What does this change for the band?

The chart result lands mid-tour. My Chemical Romance are in the middle of the extended Long Live the Black Parade tour, which kicked off in 2025. Last year they played their hometown stadium in New Jersey and sold out two nights at London's Wembley Stadium.

The run has not been entirely smooth. The band ran into legal trouble with the Dallas Cowboys cheerleading team over the tour. Billboard's figures, though, show the dispute has not dented commercial momentum.

The achievement, as the source frames it, cements The Black Parade as a timeless record and reinforces the band's status as rock icons — and their unstoppable comeback. Whether a 78,000-unit week on the back of 20-plus physical variants signals durable demand or a collector-driven spike, the source does not say. Either way, the Long Live the Black Parade tour continues, and the band now holds a US chart title that eluded them at their 2000s commercial peak.