One Direction's "Made in the A.M." and Justin Bieber's "Purpose" shared the same Nov. 13 album release date and the past week had fans awaiting which album will grab the No. 1 spot for record sales; a report by Inquisitr, accordingly, revealed that there was a secret bet going on between 1D and Bieber on who would earn the higher sales.
A Nov. 22 report published by Forbes revealed that Justin Bieber's "Purpose" bested One Direction's "Made in the A.M." in the sales records race, with Bieber scoring his sixth number one album surpassing all expectations. According to Forbes, "Purpose" sold an impressive 649,000 equivalent copies while One Direction's "Made in the A.M." settled in second place with 459,000 album sales.
Inquisitr, in its report, revealed that although One Direction denies it, the band and Justin Bieber had "some sort of secret bet going on" between them and Justin Bieber on who would score a higher album sales.
An insider also previously told Hollywood Life, "Niall [Horan] and Justin are betting on whose album will have a more successful release. Niall along with the other guys, and Justin will continue to take jabs at each other for having the same release day, but for the most part they are playing it up and having fun."
The "secret bet," therefore is nothing serious and purely just for fun and it's clear who won the race: Justin Bieber.
Bieber previously told Daily Mail that One Direction releasing their new album, "Made in the A.M.," on the same date "Purpose" is released, was a strategy on the band's part.
"[They're] not really going on the road much, but we're talking about them now, so it gives them some promo, right? But, whatever. It's whatever. It's gonna be fun. I'm excited to see what happens," Bieber told New Zealand station The Edge (via Daily Mail), claiming One Direction are trying to "steal his thunder" by choosing the same album release date as his.
L.A. Times, in its report, however pointed out that Justin Bieber clearly has an upper hand for album sales because the pop star has not released an album in several years already.
