(AllHipHop News) The Weeknd is the new first-week sales king of the year. His After Hours album launched at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart with 444,000 opening-week units, surpassing BTS’ Map of the Soul: 7 (422,000 units).
444K is also a personal career-best for the singer-songwriter born Abel Tesfaye. Previously, 2016’s Starboy debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 with 348,000 units. The Weeknd now has four Number One albums in his discography.
“Big thanks to everyone involved, and of course the fans! Love you guys ,” tweeted Abel on Sunday evening. Later that night, he posted a link to three new songs that are part of the deluxe version of After Hours.
https://twitter.com/theweeknd/status/1244397491736346626https://twitter.com/theweeknd/status/1244403576429920256
The last R&B album to have a bigger sales week than After Hours was Beyoncé’s Lemonade in 2016. Queen Bey’s critically-acclaimed, Grammy-winning collection brought in 653,000 units in its initial week of release.
In addition, The Weeknd’s After Hours scored the all-time biggest streaming week for an R&B album (220.7 million streams). He actually replaced himself at the top of that list by beating the 175.2 million streams for Starboy.
According to industry forecasters, The Weeknd could end up with the #1 album and the #1 song in the country at the same time. “Blinding Lights” is projected to dethrone Roddy Ricch’s “The Box” at the pinnacle of the Hot 100 chart following the song’s 11-week reign at #1.
https://twitter.com/theweeknd/status/1244476851264741379