Drake’s latest album, Scorpion, logged a record-breaking inaugural week, pulling 1 billion streams globally.
Scorpion also rose to the top in the music charts in the U.S., where it amassed nearly 746 million streams, smashing records on Spotify and Apple Music, and lunging way ahead of the 431 million streams Post Malone’s Beerbong & Bentleys received.
Having established the biggest week for an R&B/hip-hop album in over two years since his last album, Views , Scorpion brought Drake four of the 10 largest streaming weeks for an album. The other weeks include 2017 More Life introduction as well as its second week, and the opening frame of 2016 Views .
The power debut of Drake’s fifth studio album does not cease here, however. In a mere week, the 25-track Scorpion , which dropped on June 29 via Young Money/Cash Money/Republic Records, raked in 732,000 equivalent album units with 160,000 in traditional digital sales. Album units comprise album purchases, track equivalent albums (10 individual tracks sold), and streaming equivalent albums (1,250 paid on-demand subscriptions), Billboard informs.
This shaped up the largest week in overall sales for an album since last December, when Taylor Swift’s Reputation collected 1.24 million units.
Scorpion is Drake’s eighth consecutive No. 1 album on the Billboard 200, which also ties the Canadian rapper with Kanye West and Eminem for the second most credited top albums in the history of the chart. Jay-Z continues to claim the first spot.
Drake took to Instagram to celebrate, posting “New era. New Platinum. Thank you a billion times over (a billion plus).”
The Scorpion launch could not come in a more propitious time, Engadget says. The Billboard 200 has just updated its charts to put more weight on paid streams, a change that has almost guaranteed Drake’s success, writes Jon Fingas.
With or without a little boost in gauging metrics, Scorpion has already solidified its designation as a fan favorite. Much of its appeal comes from its distinct halves – one rap and one pop – that meld together under the theme of Drake’s own life experiences, regrets, and spats.
On the album, he confessed about his son with Sophie Brussaux, a revelation which began with rumors promulgated by Pusha-T. He also shocked the music world by incorporating previously unreleased Michael Jackson recordings into his jams. He also proved his faculty to take on critics and haters, writing in the editor’s notes of the album on Apple Music:
ANYBODY ELSE > DRAKE …
YEAH YEAH WE KNOW
A physical version of Scorpion comes out on July 13.
