I heard a rumor that Linkin Park bought up 200,000 of their own albums to boost their unit sales figures in the United States.....
Just to add to this, Living Things sold 20,000 to reach #1 in Canada. Source: http://www.lfpress.com/entertainment/music/2012/07/04/19949961.html
no1 in Hungary too http://www.mahasz.hu/?menu=slagerlistak&menu2=top_40_album_es_valogataslemez_lista
Number 2 in Spain =D http://www.promusicae.org/files/listassemanales/albumes/top 100 albumes (publicar)_w26.2012.pdf
I think the reason ATS did better in sales in its first week than LT is because people weren't left that disappointed after MTM. Sure it was a total change in sound from HT and Meteora, but ultimately people liked it, far more than ATS. So after ATS, the disappointment, I feel, was bigger so LP lost even more fans so a lot less people went out to pick up LT.
Album sales DO go down, but to say that it's the only reason is a stretch. Album sales now go down about 2% a year so a drop from 625k for MtM to 241k for ATS is a lot more than just the market... we're deluding ourselves if we say otherwise.
Thank you Mark & Derek for adding Argentina to the list, we hope Linkin Park will be at the top of the chats for a lot of weeks more!! The day after tomorrow will be the 3td week being N° 1. Greetings from Argentina.