Chart Check [Billboard 200]: Travis Scott’s ‘Utopia’ Opens With Year’s Biggest First-Week Sales For a Hip-Hop Album

Published: Thursday 10th Aug 2023 by Rashad

Travis Scott‘s domination of Billboard is far from limited to the Hot 100 this week.

See what we mean inside.

Travis Scott’s ‘Utopia’ 

First-Week Sales (SPS):  496,000 units

First-Week Sales (Pure): 252,000 units

Billboard 200 Debut:  #1

Scott’s star-studded fourth album, which features megastars like Bad Bunny, Beyoncé, Drake, Future, Lil Uzi Vert, SZA, The Weeknd, and more, soared to #1 on the updated Billboard 200 thanks to total first-week sales of 496,000 units.

Boasting his second-highest opening to date (following the 537,000 units moved by ‘AstroWorld‘), ‘Utopia’ also owns the highest opening for any R&B or Hip-Hop album dropped this year. The July 28-released set’s first-week commercial performance overall is only bested by 2023 efforts from Taylor Swift‘s Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)‘ (716,000) and Morgan Wallen‘s ‘One Thing at a Time‘ (501,000).

Travis’ third Billboard 200 chart-topper (following 2018’s ‘AstroWorld’ and 2016’s ‘Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight‘), the impressive premiere of ‘Utopia’ can be attributed greatly to its gargantuan streaming: over 330 million spins. Coming as the second-biggest streaming sum of the year, Billboard reports the figure was so high ‘Utopia’ would’ve debuted at #1 had it sold no physical or digital copies.

Other factors that contributed to its opening success were the multiple physical editions, different digital editions (with three different tracklists), and discounted versions that sold as low as $4.99.

Billboard 200 This Week

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  1. Diabetes UNBOTHERED August 10, 2023

    First-Week Sales (Pure): 252,000

    #IMPRESSIVE… Album is growing on me.

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