Chris Stapleton Soars to the Top of the Billboard Charts After Night at the CMAs

It's been a while since we've seen a country artist find such instant worldwide renown like Chris Stapleton did at last week's CMA Awards.

And his album sales since are proof.

Stapleton, who won New Artist of the Year, Male Vocalist of the Year and Album of the Year for his debut record Traveller, not only found himself at the top of the iTunes albums chart DURING the CMA Awards, but now he's at the top of the largest mountain -- the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart. 

After initially peaking at No. 14 when it released in May, Traveller's sales went up more than 6,000 percent, selling 177,000 units for the week ending Nov. 5. That ended as more than 100,000 units better than Eric Church's new album Mr. Misunderstood, which he released as a surprise during the CMA Awards.

Stapleton's album sold more copies during last week than it had total since its May release. It is the first debut country album to reach the top of the Billboard Top 200 since Scotty McCreery's Clear As Day in 2011.

Stapleton performed with pop superstar Justin Timberlake at Nov. 4's CMA Awards, playing his cover of George Jones' "Tennessee Whiskey" and Timberlake's "Drink You Away" off his latest album, The 20/20 Experience, 2 of 2.

Chris Stapleton: 'When the Stars Come Out'