There has been a lot of noise in recent weeks surrounding The Weeknd's most recent album Dawn FM. Released on Jan. 7, the album was wildly successful on streaming, but could not secure the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 chart, losing a nail-biter to Gunna's DS4EVER.
The Weeknd expedited his album's rollout so fans could receive it faster, ultimately hurting his sales numbers because there were no physical copies available yet. But, he asserted that he cared more about fans being able to experience the project sooner than his commercial success.
But, even with this sacrifice, The Weeknd has still been able to dominate in streaming, particularly on Spotify. On Saturday (Jan. 22), The Weeknd surpassed Justin Bieber for most monthly listeners in the world on Spotify.
Justin Bieber still holds the record for highest peak of monthly listeners ever at 94.68 million, but Dawn FM helped bolster The Weeknd to 85.6 million current monthly listeners.
Two weeks into 2022 on Jan. 16, The Weeknd had already surpassed 500 million Spotify streams this year. So, it is no surprise The Weeknd has achieved this feat. It does not look like Abel plans to slow down either, as he recently hinted that his two recent studio albums, After Hours and Dawn FM, were part of a trilogy of albums, similar to his 2012 Trilogy involving his House of Balloons, Thursday and Echoes Of Silence projects.
Do you think The Weeknd is currently the King of Pop?
[Via]