On the Charts: Post Malone Breaks Streaming Record With ‘Beerbongs & Bentleys’

Post Malone set a new record for most streams in a week and established the best-selling week of 2018 as the rapper’s Beerbongs & Bentleys opened atop the Billboard 200.

The album opened with 461,000 total copies in its first week of availability, with the majority of that total the result of a record-breaking 288,000 streaming equivalent albums, or SEAs. In total, tracks from Beerbongs & Bentleys were streamed over 431 million times this week to cruise past the previous record holder, Drake’s More Life, which accumulated nearly 385 million streams upon its release in March 2017, Billboard reports.

With the SEAs included, Beerbongs & Bentleys set the best sales week on the Billboard 200 since Taylor Swift’s Reputation went instant-platinum in November 2017. However, as Billboard noted earlier in the week, Nielsen’s metrics in measuring SEAs will change starting June 29th; under the new rules, Beerbongs & Bentleys‘ opening week tally would have been significantly lower, albeit still impressive. Beerbongs was also aided by a deal that packaged concert tickets to Malone’s upcoming concerts with a copy of the LP.

Malone’s Stoney, released back in December 2016, also continues to hover in the Top 10, finishing this week at Number Nine. That album has spent 73 consecutive weeks in the Top 25.

Beerbongs & Bentleys led a parade of new releases that shook up the upper tier of the Billboard 200. Keith Urban’s Graffiti U bowed at Number Two and 145,000 total copies, followed by Janelle Monae’s Dirty Computer at Number Six and 54,000 total copies and YoungBoy NBA’s Until Death Call My Name at Number Seven. Godsmack’s When Legends Rise, at Number Eight, rounded out the five new Top 10 arrivals.

J. Cole’s KOD, last week’s Number One, fell two spots to Number Three, ahead of Cardi B’s Invasion of Privacy (Number Four) and the Greatest Showman soundtrack (Number Five). Jason Aldean’s Rearview Town closed out the Top 10 at Number 10.