Drake Still Breaking Records

For a third straight week, Drake’s Scorpion holds at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. The set earned 260,000 equivalent album units in the week ending July 19, according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum, 29,000 were in traditional album sales.

Wiz Khalifa’s Rolling Papers 2 is the only debut in the top 10, as it starts at No. 2 with 80,000 units.

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. Units are comprised of traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). The new July 28-dated chart (where Scorpion spends a third week at No. 1) will be posted in full on Billboard’s websites on Tuesday, July 24.

With a third week at No. 1, Scorpion ties for the most weeks atop the Billboard 200 in 2018 with Post Malone’s beerbongs & bentleys and Black Panther: The Album. The latter notched three nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 (Feb. 24, March 3 and then on March 17), while the former strung three straight weeks together (May 12-26). The last album to claim more weeks at No. 1 was Taylor Swift’s reputation, which collected four nonconsecutive weeks in the penthouse (three in a row from Dec. 2-16, 2017, and then one more on Jan. 6, 2018).

With Scorpion earning 260,000 equivalent album units in its third week, it’s the first album since Adele’s 25 to see its first three weeks all earn more than 260,000 units apiece. 25 launched with a weekly-record 3.48 million units (Dec. 12, 2015-dated chart), and then racked up 1.16 million and 728,000 in its second and third weeks, respectively (Dec. 19 and 26).

Streaming continues to power Scorpion, as 82 percent of its total units for the week came from SEA units (213,000 of 260,000). Traditional album sales totaled 29,000, while TEA units equaled 18,000.