While Kanye West's Jesus Is King has long been slated to claim the No. 1 slot on the Billboard 200 albums chart, the rapper officially claimed his ninth consecutive No. 1 debut on Sunday, matching Eminem's record for the most consecutive No. 1 debuts on the same chart.
The effort claimed 264,000 equivalent album units in its first week with an impressive 109,000 units being pure album sales, a considerable figure for a hip-hop centric album in the streaming age. It also means that West lays claim to the second-largest sales week of the year for an R&B/Hip-Hop album, only trailing Post Malone's Hollywood's Bleeding.
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Meanwhile, streaming accounted for 151,00 total streaming equivalent albums, amounting to 196.9 million on-demand audio streams across the album’s 11 tracks, becoming the fifth-largest streaming week of the year and Kanye West's largest streaming week ever.
With every one of his projects charting at No. 1 since 2005 (2004's College Dropout is the only Kanye West album to miss the mark, debuting and peaking at No. 2), West now joins Eminem is surpassing the Beatles for the most consecutive No. 1 albums overall. They still trail behind Jay-Z's total of 14 No. 1 efforts, though they were not all consecutive.
Following up is Posty's Hollywood's Bleeding at No. 2 with 81,000 album-equivalent units. He replaces former No. 2 AI YoungBoy 2 who slips down to No. 4 this week with 64,000 units. Summer Walker's Over It glides on down to No. 5 with 60,000 units, followed up with DaBaby's KIRK at No. 6 with 40,000 units. Further on down the list is Young Thug's So Much Fun closing out at No. 10 with 28,000 equivalent album units.
