A Look at Drake’s First-Week Sales for Every Project He’s Dropped
Drake has been putting numbers on the board for over 16 years. His discography has put him in elite territory.
This week, he locked in another No. 1 as a result of $ome $exy $ongs 4 U, his joint album with singer PartyNextDoor. The 21-track effort was the first top spot for PND while it marks the 14th for Drake, tying him for the most among soloists Jay-Z and singer Taylor Swift on the Billboard 200 chart. Only The Beatles have more than those three artists with 19 No. 1s. Looking at Drizzy’s output in recent years, he could easily surpass that number within the next 10 years if he continues to release new projects at the rate he’s been. “Numbers-wise, I’m outta here, you not f**kin’ creepin’ up,” the Toronto MC delivered on his Kendrick Lamar diss track “Push Ups,” and that’s no lie.
Since 2009, the first-week sales earnings for Drake’s projects have earned more ups than downs. So Far Gone that same year marked the lowest sales entry of his career. Sixteen years have passed, and he’s never fallen to that dismal five-figure again. While there was a dip for his 2015 joint project with Future, What a Time to Be Alive, his solo run from 2010 to 2016 found Drake racking up debut numbers that crushed his competition. In 2016, he landed the biggest sales week of his life with Views. While he has never eclipsed those numbers since, it certainly was a different time in the landscape for both streaming and physical sales. The OVO leader proved his pop star appeal was comparable to the likes of Beyoncé, Adele and Justin Timberlake at that time.
In celebration of his latest No. 1, take a look at Drake’s first-week sales numbers throughout his career below.