Ye moved 208,000 equivalent album units in its first week, earning Kanye West his eighth No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart.
This marks Kanye's eighth straight No. 1 album, tying the record for consecutive chart-toppers set by Eminem and The Beatles. After his first album, The College Dropout, debuted at No. 2 in 2014, all of Kanye's albums have entered the charts at No. 1, according to Billboard.
Of Ye's 208,000 total units, 120,000 came from on-demand streams—the seventh-largest debut streaming week ever. Given the fact that Ye only has seven songs, that's extra impressive. Each song on the project averaged 25.7 million on-demand streams. Only one other album has topped that this year: J. Cole's KOD with a 26.9 million per-track average.
After a controversy-filled album rollout and calls for a Kanye boycott, commercial success for Ye didn't always feel like a sure thing. In the days following the album's release, however, all seven songs dominated streaming service charts. This prompted Kanye to share an emotional tweet last week: "I feel so blessed. For everyone that didn't turn they back. I'm in tears right now. I love all of you."
Elsewhere on this week's charts, Post Malone's beerbongs & bentleys comes in at No. 2 and rock band Ghost debuts at No. 3 with Prequelle. Country singer Luke Combs' This One’s for You and Cardi B's Invasion of Privacy round out the top 5.
