A year after Migos’ Culture debuted atop the Billboard 200, the Atlanta trio repeated the feat as their Culture II opened at Number One with 199,000 total copies sold.
However, of Culture II‘s 199,000 total copies sold, only 38,000 were from traditional album sales, with streaming equivalent albums (SEAs) responsible for 150,000 copies. With a 24-song track list, the album seems specifically engineered to amplify streaming totals, which it did successfully: Culture II had the Billboard 200’s most opening-week streams since Kendrick Lamar’s Damn. in May 2017.
As Billboard notes, Rolling Stone cover stars Quavo, Offset and Takeoff are now only the fifth hip-hop group in history to have more than one Number One album, joining the Beastie Boys (four times) and A Tribe Called Quest, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and D12 (two apiece).
Above & Beyond were the only other artist to enter the Top 10 this week as the group’s Common Ground debuted at Number Three, one spot behind The Greatest Showman soundtrack, which held at Number Two for a third straight week.
Bruno Mars’ Grammy-sweeping weekend resulted in a boost in sales for 24K Magic as the singer’s Album of the Year winner jumped from Number 10 to Number Four thanks to an 89 percent surge in sales. Two more Grammy winners – Ed Sheeran’s Divide and Kendrick Lamar’s Damn. – finished the week at Number Five and Number Six.
Camila Cabello’s Camila dropped to Number Seven, ahead of fellow returnees Post Malone’s Stoney (Number Eight), Khalid’s American Teen (Number Nine) and Imagine Dragons’ Evolve (Number 10).
Super Bowl halftime performer Justin Timberlake is destined for next week’s Number One with his new LP Man of the Woods.
