Drake's new album Nothing Was The Same will debut at no. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart this week.
According to HitsDailyDouble, the album sold 658,000 copies, which was slightly less than the projected sales that were estimated last week of 675-725,000. Regardless, Nothing Was The Same becomes Drake's third consecutive album to debut at no. 1, with Thank Me Later and Take Care hitting the top of the charts in 2010 and 2011 respectively. It also becomes his best first-week sales tally, edging out Take Care which sold 631,000.
Drake's singles "Started From the Bottom" and "Hold On, We're Going Home" also did well during his promotional run for Nothing Was The Same. "Started" reached no. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart while "Hold On" climbed to no. 7. Though "Wu-Tang Forever" wasn't technically released as a single, the song has charted at no. 52, which shows you just how powerful Drake's presence is on the radio.
The idea of Nothing Was The Same selling a million copies in its first week seemed very possible considering the Toronto MC's domination of rap recently. He is unquestionably the hottest rapper right now, not to mention the most talked-about rapper on Twitter, and that was before his album leaked with countless quotables for users to tweet.
UPDATE: Billboard has released the official Nielsen Soundscan numbers, and, as reported, Drake's sales came in at 658,000 copies sold, making it the second highest-selling album of the year so far, behind only Justin Timberlake's The 20/20 Experience, which moved 968,000 units during its first week.
Billboard also noted that Nothing Was The Same registered the highest first week sales of any rap album since Lil Wayne's Tha Carter IV in 2011. Since 2010, only seven releases have sold more copies in their first week than Nothing Was The Same.
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