Drake reigns supreme on this week’s official Billboard 200.
Earmarked as one of 2016’s biggest releases, the star’s ‘VIEWS’ album has delivered dynamite sales on its first full week on sale.
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The set, which includes Hot 100 smashes such as ‘One Dance’ and ‘Hotline Bling,’ opened with pure sales of 852,000 – a number which rises to 1.04 million when factoring in SPS (sales plus streaming).
In hitting the top, the project bumps Beyonce’s ‘Lemonade’ to #2 after it registered 196k in its second week on sale.
Released via Apple Music (where it enjoyed one week exclusivity), ‘VIEWS’ songs (including a handful available on Spotify) were streamed in total a record 245.1 million times in the US during the tracking week. This sees the MC easily best the previous record set by Canadian Justin Bieber, whose ‘Purpose’ LP earned over 100 million plays last November.
The LP becomes Drizzy’s sixth straight #1 Stateside, and follows the chart topping debuts of ‘What a Time To Be Alive’ (with Future, in 2015), ‘If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late’ (2015), ‘Nothing Was the Same’ (2013), ‘Take Care’ (2012) and ‘Thank Me Later’ (2010).
The Young Money titan’s only charting effort to miss the top was 2009 debut EP, ‘So Far Gone,’ which reached #6 in 2009.
‘VIEWS’ opening marks a personal best for Drake, the largest for any album thus far this year, and the biggest for a male act in the three years since Justin Timberlake’s ’20/20 Experience’ debuted with 968k in pure sales.
Congrats!