Drake's 'Views' Tops the Charts for Sixth Straight Week

Jun 13, 2016 2:14 pm ET

Drake's 'Views,' the year's best-selling album, thanks to huge streaming numbers, is on top again.

The Canadian rapper's latest record is holding onto the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 for a sixth straight week, selling over 135,000 albums, of which 81,000 units came from on-demand audio streams of its songs. (According to Nielsen Music, 1,500 streams equals one album unit.) "Views" had nearly 32,000 sales from traditional purchases such as downloads and CDs in the week ending June 9, and 22,000 units from individual-track purchases.

After this latest week, Drake is a week away from tying British singer Adele's recent run of seven straight weeks at No. 1 with "25," which ended in January. So far this year, "Views" has sold 2.3 million albums, including streaming and individual-track purchases, Nielsen Music says; Adele's "25" has sold 1.7 million. Justin Bieber's "Purpose" is No. 3, with 1.6 million.

Rounding out the top five are Beyoncé's "Lemonade," which has sold just under 1.6 million (1.55 million), and Rihanna's "Anti," with 1.4 million sold.

Streaming is what's driving Drake's domination of the charts this year. The Toronto singer and rapper is responsible for the six biggest streaming weeks for an album, including the 122 million streams this past week. All told, "Views," released in April, has racked up nearly 1 billion streams (998 million).

Drake's achievement couldn't be more different than Adele's. Her chart domination late last year and early this year was driven by sales of physical albums and downloads—a reminder of the resilience of traditional purchases in a stagnant music industry, but something of an anachronism. (Aside from a few songs, including the hit "Hello," Adele kept her album off streaming services.)

After Drake at No. 2 this week is Beyoncé's "Lemonade," which sold 69,000 units, with 48,000 coming from downloads and CDs. (Late-comers to "Lemonade" apparently don't stream: In its seventh week, "Lemonade" tallied just 7 million streams, far below the 115 million streams of its debut week.) At No. 3 is Paul Simon's new "Stranger to Stranger," with 68,000 albums sold, of which nearly all—67,000—were traditional sales. "Stranger to Stranger" had less than 1 million streams.

Rock band Volbeat comes in at No. 4 with 51,000 copies sold of "Seal the Deal & Let's Boogie," mostly from downloads and CDs. Country singer Maren Morris' first major-label full-length LP is No. 5, with 45,000 units. Country duo Dan + Shay's new record debuts at No. 8.

Drake isn't the only artist whose chart performance is being energized by streaming.

Rihanna's "Anti," released in January, remains in the top 10, at No. 6, with roughly 9,000 in traditional sales but over 33 million streams this latest week. Ariana Grande's latest, "Dangerous Woman," is No. 7, with over 23 million streams.

Justin Bieber's "Purpose," released in November, got about 4,500 units from traditional sales, over 4,000 from individual-track sales and raked in over 16 million streams, keeping him among the top 25 on the Billboard 200, at No. 22—just above Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo," which was powered entirely by 27 million streams.

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