It’s been a week of great feats for Post Malone. After scoring record-breaking streaming numbers, he’s locked in the year’s biggest debut and landed at the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 album charts with his sophomore Beerbongs & Bentleys album.
Arriving on April 27th, the effort earned the equivalent of 461,000 album units in the first week according to Nielsen with 153,000 accounting for traditional album sales. Prior to its release, the project was already anchored down by Posty’s 21 Savage-assisted “Rockstar,” which spent eight weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart while his “Psycho” single, featuring Ty Dolla $ign, hit No. 2
Of the total 461,000 units earned, 288,000 made up for SEA Units, equating to a whopping 431.3 million on-demand audio streams in the United States alone during the first week, knocking down the previous record of 384.8 million streams held by Drake’s More Life.
If we’re looking at the bigger picture here, it only further cements the massive crossover era that hip-hop is currently undergoing as Post Malone’s huge opening arrives just one week after J. Cole’s KOD had set a record for the year’s biggest debut when it launched with 397,000 units. Impressively enough, Post Malone’s debut album Stoney, released back in 2016, is currently sitting in the top 10 as well, moving up to No. 9 from its No. 11 slot last week. The last solo act to accomplish this was Future when he dropped off his FUTURE and HNDRXX projects last year.
As for the remainder of the list, you’ll find country singer Keith Urban’s Graffiti U debuting at No. 2 while J. Cole’s KOD slides down to No. 3. Cardi B follows in at No. 4 with her debut Invasion of Privacy while the soundtrack to The Greatest Showman earns a spot at No. 5. Janelle Monae earns the week’s third-biggest debut with her Dirty Computer checking in at No. 6. Following behind at No. 7 is NBA Youngboy’s debut Until Death Call My Name, earning 43,000 units in its opening week.
At No. 8 you’ll find rock band Godsmack’s When Legends Rise while the aforementioned Stoney sits tight at No. 9 before Jason Aldean’s Rearview Town closes out the Top 10.