After setting a Spotify streaming record, with almost 10 million streams on its first day, the next question on everyone's mind: What kind of numbers will To Pimp a Butterfly move in its first week? Remember that TDE CEO Anthony "Top Dawg" Tiffith predicted a whopping one million. Well, it's safe to say Tiffith was overly optimistic with his seven figure projection, but, nonetheless, the album's first week projections are very impressive.
According to HDD, whose estimates we can usually trust, To Pimp a Butterfly will sell between 350 and 375 thousand copies its first week (including streaming; 300-325k without). These initial numbers fall well below the first week numbers of Drake's If You're Reading This It's Too Late, which were close to 500k. The album should, however, outperform Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City, which moved 242k during its first week.
Remember, physical copies of TPAB arrived in stores a couple of days after the surprise online release. These numbers are still projections, and they are subject to change during the remainder of the week. We'll be sure to notify you when the actual figures come in.
Do you think these numbers accurately match the quality of TPAB? They certainly put those Drizzy numbers in perspective. It's now up to Kanye West to top 500k.