A friend and I have been debating for the last few months over which band/artist is currently the biggest (i.e. most popular) to come out of the Christian music market. He fervently declared it was Skillet, whose Awake album debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Albums chart this past August. That’s certainly the highest position to date for a Christian artist, but as I pointed out to my friend, it means nothing—it could have been a slow week for new releases. Still, the album has already sold in excess of 200,000 copies in 3 months time.

I countered that Switchfoot, Flyleaf, Relient K, or even Steven Curtis Chapman might potentially sell better, thus demonstrating they were more popular. Not so. Whereas Skillet sold 67,000 copies of Awake in its first week, Flyleaf debuted at No. 8 and sold 56,000 copies of Memento Mori, and Switchfoot debuted at No. 13 with 39,000 copies of Hello Hurricane. Neither Relient K nor Steven Curtis Chapman cracked the Top 20.

Of course, I also noted to my friend that he shouldn’t underestimate Casting Crowns, who just released Until the Whole World Hears on November 17. After all, Christian music could probably rename its format as CCN (The Casting Crowns Network) based on the constant airplay that band receives. “No way they’ll sell better than Skillet,” my friend confidently declared.

Think again.

Casting Crowns shattered the record books, scoring the highest sales debut in Christian music history. Though it debuted on No. 4, the band confirmed my earlier point about the irrelevance of chart position, selling a whopping 167,432 copies in its first week. For those keeping score, that’s close to what Skillet sold in 3 months time. End of discussion.

Well, not quite. Based solely on opening week sales, Casting Crowns has clearly won the contest. But then consider the role of pre-sales in all this. Is it possible that most of Casting Crowns’ sales was largely due to the eager anticipation of their fan base? Also, reviews for the album have been pretty middling—but then that’s never stopped fans from buying Casting Crowns before. And of course, any of the aforementioned bands could skyrocket if the right single captures public attention at the right time. It may be a while before we can truly declare a winner here. But for now, let’s face it: Casting Crowns has jumped out of the starting gate and left everyone else in their wake.