21 Savage Scores Fourth No. 1 Album on Billboard 200 Chart With ‘American Dream’
21 Savage scores his fourth No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart as American Dream debuts atop the tally (dated Jan. 27). The set bows with 133,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Jan. 18, according to Luminate, nearly completely powered by streaming activity.
All four of the rapper’s leaders have come consecutively, starting with I Am > I Was in 2019, and followed by Savage Mode II (with Metro Boomin in 2020), Her Loss (with Drake in 2022) and American Dream.
American Dream launches with 21 Savage’s best week, by units earned, for any of his non-collaborative projects (surpassing his previous high of 131,000 in the debut frame of I Am > I Was). The set also boasts his biggest streaming week for any of his non-collaborative sets, as its collected songs generated 169.53 million on-demand official streams in its first week (again, beating the opening stanza of I Am > I Was, with 151.87 million).
American Dream was released with little warning, as the set was announced on Jan. 9 and premiered on Jan. 12. The 15-song album boasts guest turns from the likes of Metro Boomin, Doja Cat, Lil Durk, Travis Scott, Young Thug and Summer Walker.
Also in the top 10 of the new Billboard 200, Kali Uchis logs her highest-charting album ever, as her second Spanish-language full-length set, Orquideas, starts at No. 2 — and with her biggest week ever by units earned (69,000).
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Jan. 27, 2024-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Jan. 23. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
Of American Dream’s 133,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Jan. 18, SEA units comprise 128,500 (equaling 169.53 million on-demand official streams of the 15 songs on the album), album sales comprise 4,000 and TEA units comprise 500.
Kali Uchis achieves her highest-charting album ever on the Billboard 200, as Orquideas starts at No. 2 with 69,000 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum — her best week ever — SEA units comprise 38,000 (equaling 51.01 million on-demand official streams of the set’s 14 songs; her biggest streaming week ever for an album), album sales comprise 31,000 (her largest sales week, and the top-selling album of the week) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum.
Orquideas is Uchis’ second top 10-charting effort on the Billboard 200, following the mostly-English-language Red Moon in Venus, which debuted and peaked at No. 4 in March 2023.
Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time falls 1-3 on the Billboard 200 with 61,000 equivalent album units earned (down 1%). Drake’s chart-topping For All the Dogs dips 2-4 (52,000; down 10%) and Taylor Swift’s former leader 1989 (Taylor’s Version) descends 3-5 (50,000; down 11%).
Noah Kahan’s Stick Season slips 5-6 with 45,000 equivalent album units (down 1%), while the rest of the top 10 comprises former No. 1s: Nicki Minaj’s Pink Friday 2 falls 4-7 (44,000; down 16%), Swift’s Folklore rises 10-8 (43,000; up 24%), SZA’s SOS drops 6-9 (41,000; down 6%) and Swift’s Lover falls 8-10 (38,000; down 8%).
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.
Keith Caulfield
Billboard