On the Charts: ‘Ye’ Gives Kanye West Eighth Straight Number One Album
Kanye West claimed his eighth consecutive Number One album as the rapper’s Ye opened atop the Billboard 200.
Ye sold 205,000 total copies in its first week of release, although the bulk of that haul was thanks to 120,000 streaming equivalent albums (SEAs). 85,000 copies of the seven-song LP were from traditional sales; it’s unclear whether the physical copies sold exclusively on West’s website were part of that total.
West joins Eminem as the only artists to debut at Number One with eight straight albums, Billboard reports. For West, his streak began in 2005 with his second album Late Registration – his first LP The College Dropout peaked at Number Two in 2004 – and continued with Graduation, 808s & Heartbreak, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Watch the Throne with Jay-Z, Yeezus, The Life of Pablo and now Ye.
Depending on how the Billboard 200 views West and Kid Cudi’s Kids See Ghosts, the rapper could make it a record-breaking nine straight Number One albums next week. (Comparatively, that collaborative album‘s failure to finish first could potentially end West’s streak if, like Watch the Throne, Kids See Ghosts counts toward West’s chart-topping tally.)
Only one new release entered the Top 10 behind West: At Number Three, metal band Ghost hit a new Billboard 200 high as their Prequelle debuted at Number Three and 66,000 copies; that total was helped by a promotion that coupled concert tickets with Prequelle copies.
Post Malone’s Beerbongs & Bentleys once again led the returnees with another week at Number Two, followed by Luke Combs’ This One’s for You (Number Four), Cardi B’s Invasion of Privacy (Five), Juice Wrld’s Goodbye & Good Riddance (Six) and The Greatest Showman soundtrack (Seven).
Shawn Mendes’ self-titled LP, last week’s Number One, tumbled to Number Eight, with Lil Baby’s Harder Than Ever at Number Nine and Jason Aldean’s Rearview Town at Number 10.
If West and Cudi’s Kids See Ghosts wants Number One next week, it’ll need to outsell stiffer competition in the form of Dave Matthews Band’s Come Tomorrow, Sugarland’s Bigger and Dierks Bentley’s The Mountain.