Garth Brooks scores 18th top 10 album on Billboard 200

Garth Brooks banks his 18th top 10 album on the Billboard 200, as his 10-CD box set, The Ultimate Collection, vaults 13-6 in its second week (on the chart dated Jan. 7, 2017). The set surges by 75 percent to 64,000 equivalent units (all from traditional album sales) in the week ending Dec. 22, according to Nielsen Music.

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption, which includes traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA).

Now with 18 top 10s, Brooks breaks a tie with Tim McGraw (17) for the second-most top 10s among core country acts in the Billboard 200's 60-year history. George Strait leads with 20. (Among all artists, The Rolling Stones boast a record 37 top 10s.)

PHOTOS: Garth Brooks through the years

Concurrently, The Ultimate Collection leads Top Country Albums for a second week, where it's Brooks' 16th No. 1. The set was released as a Target exclusive Nov. 11; it has sold 390,000 copies to date. Notably, the package was not eligible for Billboard's charts for its first four weeks as, per chart policy, its price ($29.99) fell below the minimum price for it to chart ($3.49 for a single disc, or $3.49 times the amount of discs in a multi-disc box set, in a title's first four weeks of release).

As The Ultimate Collection remains at No. 1 on Top Country Albums, Brooks occupies the top 10 with four titles for a second straight week: Christmas Together, with his wife, Trisha Yearwood, declines 2-4 (23,000 sold, down 8 percent); the Christmas Together/Gunslinger bundle, available exclusively at Walmart, pushes 8-6 (15,000, up 18 percent); and the stand-alone Gunslinger, Brooks' new studio album, rises 10-7 (15,000, up 30 percent). (Gunslinger is also included as one of the 10 CDs in The Ultimate Collection.)

STEPPING UP: Jon Pardi​'s "Dirt on My Boots" ascends to the Hot Country Songs top 10, kicking 13-10. The track jumps 7-3 on Country Digital Song Sales (a new best rank for Pardi on the chart) with 16,000 downloads sold (up 11 percent). It rises 19-17 on Country Airplay (14 million audience impressions, down 3 percent) and 20-18 on Country Streaming Songs (1.7 million U.S. streams, up 3 percent).

"Boots" is Pardi's third Hot Country Songs top 10, following the No. 4-peaking "Head Over Boots" (August 2016) and "Up All Night" (No. 10, February 2014).