Juice WRLD's first posthumous release, "Legends Never Die," debuts on the top of Billboard 200, marking the largest debut week of the year.
According to Nielsen Music/MRC Data, the third overall album from the late rapper garnered 497,000 equivalent album units in the US alone. Aside from making its chart debut at No. 1 on the all-genre album chart, it also managed to set a record this year. "Legends Never Die" posted the largest single streaming week for 2020 so far. It also holds the record for the fourth-largest "streaming frame ever for an album."
Juice WRLD's 497,000 equivalent sales is made up of 283,000 sales equivalent album units. These SEA units are from 422.63 million on demand streams from all tracks from his album. It also garnered 209,000 album sales, largely from merch/ bundle offers. Lastly, Juice WRLD's team managed to move 3,000 TEA unit sales.
In the biggest sales week for an album, Juice WRLD's "Legends Never Die" dethrones the previous record. In the Billboard 200 chart dated April 4, The Weeknd's "After Hours" posted 444,000 total equivalent units.
Billboard also reports that the last album to surpass Juice WRLD's new record was Taylor Swift's 2019 album "Lover," earning a total of 867,000 units on the chart dated September 7, 2019. For hip-hop albums on the Billboard 200, the last album to surpass "Legends Never Die" was 2018's "Astroworld," by Travis Scott. It moved 537,000 equivalent units, debuting at the top of the Aug 18, 2018 chart.
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From "Righteous" to "Come & Go"
"Legends Never Die" was first announced in January 2020, almost a month after his death on December 8, 2019. His record label, Grade A, and his family released a statement about his unreleased music.
"We plan to honor Juice's talents, his spirit, and the love he felt for his fans by sharing unreleased music and other projects that he was passionately in the process of developing," the statement read.
His first posthumous album was announced as "Legends Never Die." The Juice WRLD team first confirmed the album on July 7, 2020. As the third album overall, it was supported by four singles, with a fifth one to be released later.
On April 24, "Righteous" was released and was announced as the album's lead single. It was followed on May 29, with the Trippie Redd-supported "Tell Me U Luv Me." The third single from the album was the Halsey collaboration, "Life's A Mess." The last single released was "Come & Go," Juice WRLD's team-up with EDM star Marshmello. It was released the day before the album.
A fifth single from "Legends Never Die," "Wishing Well," is set to be released through rhythmic contemporary stations across the US.
"Legends Never Die" is the third studio album of Juice WRLD, following his successful albums "Goodbye & Good Riddance" (2018) and "Death Race for Love" (2019). Following WRLD's death due to a drug-induced seizure, both his label and his family decided to set aside "The Outsiders" in favor of "Legends." The rapper's last single before his death was "Bandit," which featured YoungBoy Never Broke Again. It was supposed to be the lead single for "The Outsiders."
