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There is quite obviously something about Drake that resonates with the masses and that makes them want to hear his music, and these days those masses are turning to streaming to listen.
As of this sales frame, Drake’s new collection Views can now claim the four largest weeks in streaming history for a single album. Yup, all four. He clinched the number one position for a fourth consecutive week thanks to over 100 million more plays on various streaming outlets, despite some tough competition from Ariana Grande and Blake Shelton.
The rapper's fourth full-length proper "album" debuted at number one a month ago thanks to its record-breaking 245.1 million streams. That number is significant for two very important reasons. First, it was more than twice the previous biggest week for an album in streaming history. Before the hip-hop star dropped his latest collection, that spot was owned by Beyoncé and her latest surprise record, Lemonade. That album kicked off with just over 115 million song plays in its first week, a number that Drake smashed to pieces instantly.
It’s also worth noting that in its first week out of the gate, Views was only streamable on Apple Music. Drake was able to claim the top spot on the list of the most streamed albums ever by using just one platform. Despite the fact that he withheld Views from more popular services like Spotify when it first arrived, he was just recently named the most popular artist on the streaming site in the entire world, stealing that crown from pop sensation Justin Bieber.
In the trio of weeks since Views first made history and initially appeared on the Billboard 200, the title has continued to perform well time and time again. All three weeks go down as some of the biggest of all time, with streaming totals coming in at 186.1 million (week three), 166.2 million (week four), and 140.8 million plays (week two). The success of Views pushes the previously-established best frames of artists like Beyoncé, Justin Bieber, and Kanye West all further down the ranking. All of those artists were able to accrue at least 100 million plays on streaming platforms for their latest collections in just one week (except Kanye, who missed the mark by just one million streams), while Drake remains the only artist to ever pass the 200 million threshold.
While Drake’s streaming popularity is unprecedented and it’s unlikely that any artist will break his recently set records for some time, these numbers are further evidence that streaming is quite quickly becoming king.
