Sam Smith’s fifth studio album, Hazel Eyes, has delivered the weakest commercial opening of the British singer’s career in the United States, failing to appear on the Billboard 200 chart in its first week of release.

The album, released on August 21, 2026, via Capitol Records, sold just 6,500 units according to industry tracking data, a sharp decline from the multi-platinum heights of earlier projects and a notable absence for an artist who had maintained a consistent top-10 presence on the all-genre ranking for more than a decade.

The Billboard 200 measures multi-metric consumption, combining pure album sales, track-equivalent albums, and streaming-equivalent albums. Hazel Eyes did register on the Top Album Sales chart, which tracks pure sales only, ranking among the week’s higher-selling new studio albums and peaking at No. 30.

Yet the lack of sufficient streaming activity kept the project entirely off the main 200-position list. This marks the first time one of Smith’s studio albums has missed the Billboard 200.

Previous releases had established a reliable commercial footprint. Smith’s 2014 debut In the Lonely Hour opened strongly and eventually became one of the decade’s biggest sellers. The Thrill of It All (2017) debuted at No. 1 with hundreds of thousands of units.

Even the more modest Love Goes (2020) and Gloria (2023) ; the latter powered by the global hit “Unholy” with Kim Petras still managed top-10 entries, with Gloria peaking at No. 7. The abrupt end of that streak has drawn attention across the industry.

Hazel Eyes arrives as a more intimate, organic-sounding collection than Smith’s recent dance-pop leanings. Co-produced with longtime collaborator Simon Aldred and others, the 12-track album draws on gospel, blues, soul, folk, and jazz influences.

It features contributions from Feist and multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily, with sessions partly recorded at New York’s Electric Lady Studios. Smith has described the record as deeply personal, inspired by life in New York and a relationship that later led to an engagement announcement. Singles including “My Guy,” “To Be Free,” “Oh Mother,” and “When He’s Gone” preceded the full release, yet none generated significant Hot 100 impact.

Public Reaction

Critical response has been generally favorable. Aggregators placed the album in the solid mid-to-high 70s range. Reviewers praised its cohesive narrative of romance and maturity, restrained vocal approach, and shift away from polished production toward something warmer and more lived-in.

AllMusic called it Smith’s most accomplished and confident work to date, while other outlets highlighted the gospel touches and emotional clarity. Commercial results, however, have not mirrored the reviews.

In the United Kingdom, the album debuted at No. 21 on the Official Albums Chart with 4,470 album-equivalent units, another career low relative to earlier peaks. International chart positions were similarly restrained, with entries in the 20s and 30s in several European territories and Australia.

Streaming numbers for the new tracks have remained modest compared with Smith’s catalog mainstays such as “Stay With Me” and “Unholy,” which continue to accumulate hundreds of millions of plays.

The modest first-week figure of approximately 6,500 units in the U.S. reflects broader shifts in how albums perform. Pure sales remain a smaller slice of overall consumption for most artists, and without a breakout streaming single or heavy playlist dominance, even established names can struggle to clear the threshold for the Billboard 200.

Competing releases in late August further crowded the landscape. Smith’s previous promotional cycle for Gloria benefited from a high-profile collaboration and viral momentum that Hazel Eyes has not replicated.

Smith has maintained an active performance schedule around the release, including residencies under the “To Be Free” banner in New York, San Francisco, and upcoming dates in Mexico and the United Kingdom.

Those intimate shows mixed older hits with new material and featured guest appearances, offering a different avenue for connection with fans beyond traditional radio and streaming metrics. The artist has publicly expressed pride in the album, framing it as an honest document of recent personal growth.

For now, the first-week numbers and chart absence stand as a clear departure from the commercial trajectory Smith established over the past twelve years. The project underscores the challenges even multi-Grammy winners face in an era dominated by streaming velocity and viral moments.

Industry observers will watch subsequent weeks closely to determine if the album can climb into the Billboard 200 or whether the opening performance signals a more permanent recalibration of expectations for the artist’s catalog.

The 6,500-unit report and complete miss of the Billboard 200 have already circulated widely among chart watchers and social media, framing the release as a commercial underperformance relative to Smith’s established standards.

While pure sales placed it respectably among new releases that week, the multi-metric calculation that defines the Billboard 200 left Hazel Eyes outside the ranking entirely.