The Weeknd has officially broken his previous personal best, moving 444,000 equivalent album units with After Hours in its first week, which is enough to claim the top spot on the Billboard 200.
According to Billboard, this is the fourth time that The Weeknd has managed to snag the first position on the chart. With such astounding numbers from the Canadian singer, it marks an even greater accomplishment that After Hours would still have been No. 1 if it hadn't sold a single physical or digital copy. With such high streaming numbers, The Weeknd still beat out Lil Uzi Vert's Eternal Atake, which now sits at the second spot with 115,000 units.
This is the most impressive sales week for any artist this year, moving more copies than BTS did with their chart-topper Map of the Soul: 7. Elsewhere on the chart, Lil Baby has moved down to No. 3, Bad Bunny dips to No. 4, and Conan Grey debuts at No. 5.
The Weeknd released a triplet of new songs to complement the After Hours album, sharing them with fans this morning. That will surely help to bolster another strong week from Abel Tesfaye, despite album releases by PARTYNEXTDOOR, Jeezy, and others.
What did you think of After Hours? Did it live up to the hype?