submit close-up shots of their faces in order to make 2,000 different individual covers for the album. Leto described This Is War as a record about survival: "It was a two-year creative battle that was ferocious and tough but creatively rewarding, and all of those adverse elements, in hindsight, made us stronger and made the record stronger." Although the release date was changed many times, This Is War was eventually released in December 2009. The album reached the top ten of several national album charts and entered the Billboard 200 at number 18, with first-week sales of 67,000 in the United States. Its first two singles, "Kings and Queens" and "This Is War", reached the number-one spot on the US Alternative Songs chart. After a promotional tour in winter 2009, Thirty Seconds to Mars embarked on their Into the Wild Tour in February 2010. At the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards, "Kings and Queens" received four nominations, including Video of the Year and Best Direction, and went on to win Best Rock Video. The album's third single, "Closer to the Edge", was the 2010 best-selling rock single in the United Kingdom, topping the UK Rock Chart for eight consecutive weeks. Thirty Seconds to Mars collaborated with rapper Kanye West on the song "Hurricane", which was released on the deluxe edition of This Is War and became the album's fourth single in some countries. On November 7, Thirty Seconds to Mars and West performed "Hurricane" at the 2010 MTV Europe Music Awards at the Puerta de Alcalá in Madrid, where the band also received their third Best Rock. On May 13, 2011, Thirty Seconds to Mars recorded a performance for the television program MTV Unplugged. They performed with musicians from the Vitamin String Quartet and invited a gospel choir to join the group for a rendition of U2's song "Where the Streets Have No Name". A Songkick study indicated that, based on quantity of tour dates, Thirty Seconds to Mars was among the hardest-working touring artists in 2010. On October 16, 2011, it was announced that the band would enter the Guinness World Records for most live shows during a single album cycle, with 300 shows. The 300th show, called Tribus Centum Numerarae, took place on December 7, 2011 at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City and was followed by a special series of shows which marked the end of