People knew Drake's new album was going to be successful, but they probably couldn't have predicted just how commercially successful Views really was. In its first week, the album was streamed a whopping 250 million times on Apple Music alone, where it was released as an exclusive, and sold over one million copies on iTunes.
Breaking down those impressive numbers reveal where all of these sales and streams are coming from. 200 million of the 250 million came from the United States alone.
The album was sold nearly 1.2 million times globally, with 1 million of those coming in the United States. After being an exclusive on iTunes for a week, it is available to download on all other portals today, May 6.
Views will remain an Apple Music exclusive until May 13, where it will then be available to stream on all other streaming services. It is expected to hit No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 album charts and went to No. 1 in 95 countries globally on iTunes.
Drake's Views comes just a week after Beyoncé dropped her own album Lemonade as a surprise and went on to top the charts with over 600,000 equivalent albums sold. As a TIDAL exclusive, it was a boon for the service, racking up nearly 170,000 equivalent sales from streams alone.
Reviews have been mixed for Views, with the general feeling that it is a very good Drake album, but it doesn't do much to push forward the man as an artist. To keep the momentum going, Drake will be the host and musical guest on Saturday Night Live next weekend, May 14. It will be the second time he has taken on that dual role.
