Drake earns his 13th No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated Oct. 21), as his new studio effort For All the Dogs debuts atop the list. The set earned 402,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Oct. 12, according to Luminate. That marks the fourth-largest week of the year for an album, by units earned.
For All the Dogs’ opening frame was almost entirely driven by the streaming activity of its 23 songs. In total, 97% of Dogs’ debut was owed to song streams — adding up to 514.01 million on-demand official streams of those songs in its first week. That results in the largest streaming week of 2023 for any album, and the fourth-largest ever. Strikingly, of the top five biggest streaming weeks four of them were generated by a Drake album.
For All the Dogs was released at 6 a.m. ET on Friday, Oct. 6 — slightly off-cycle, as most new albums are released at 12 a.m. ET every Friday. The album was first teased in June, and then on Sept. 6, he announced the album was due to be released on Sept. 22. By Sept. 15, he had pushed that release date back to Oct. 6.
Dogs is Drake’s fourth album in less than two years, and third since June of 2022. He released the collaborative Her Loss with 21 Savage in November of 2022, and the solo sets Honestly, Nevermind in June of 2022 and Certified Lover Boy in Sept. 2021.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Oct. 21, 2023-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Tuesday (Oct. 17). For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
Of For All the Dogs’ 402,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Oct. 12, SEA units comprise 391,000 (equaling 514.01 million on-demand official streams of the set’s 23 songs), album sales comprise 10,000 (it was only available to purchase as a digital download album) and TEA units comprise a little over 1,000.
In terms of total on-demand official streams earned by the album’s songs in its first week, the 514.01 million figure marks the fourth-largest streaming week ever, and biggest of 2023. Here are the top five biggest streaming weeks for an album, by total on-demand streams earned by a set’s collected songs: Drake’s Scorpion (745.92 million in its debut, in 2018), Drake’s Certified Lover Boy (743.67 million in its debut, 2021), Taylor Swift’s Midnights (549.26 million in its debut, 2022), For All the Dogs (514.01 million) and Drake and 21 Savage’s Her Loss (513.56 million in its debut, 2022).
With a 13th No. 1 album on the Billboard 200, Drake breaks out of a tie with Swift to solely have the third-most No. 1s on the chart. The Beatles continue to have a record 19 No. 1s, followed by Jay-Z with 14, Drake with 13, and Swift with 12. (Swift’s next album, the re-recorded 1989 [Taylor’s Version], is due to be released on Oct. 27. All 12 of Swift’s full-length studio albums and re-recorded projects from 2008’s Fearless through 2023’s Speak Now [Taylor’s Version] have debuted at No. 1.)
The Nos. 2 through 7 albums on the new Billboard 200 are all former No. 1s. Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time dips 1-2 with 72,000 equivalent album units earned (down 3%), Rod Wave’s Nostalgia falls 2-3 (59,000; down 16%), Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts descends 3-4 (nearly 59,000; down 12%), Zach Bryan’s self-titled album is a non-mover at No. 5 (53,000; down 9%), SZA’s SOS is stationary at No. 6 (50,000; down 4%), Swift’s Midnights climbs 8-7 (42,000; down 2%) an Travis Scott’s Utopia dips 7-8 (40,000; down 12%).
Noah Kahan’s Stick Season is back in the top 10 for the first time since June, as it climbs 13-9 with 39,000 equivalent album units (up 26%). The set benefits from activity generated by a recently released remix of the album’s “She Calls Me Back” with Kacey Musgraves. Kahan also additionally gained exposure thanks to Rodrigo’s recent cover of the album’s title track on BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge.
Rounding out the new top 10 of the Billboard 200 is Swift’s former No. 1 Lover, which rises 11-10 with nearly 39,000 equivalent album units earned (down 4%).
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.
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