It was a long time coming, but Drake finally released Views in late April. As is the trend these days, the Canadian rapper worked out a deal of fleeting streaming exclusivity with Apple Music, with download sales of the album relegated to iTunes in its debut week. But even with those self-imposed limitations, Drake’s fourth studio album debuted at the top of the charts, including the Billboard 200. Yahoo! News reports that the 20 songs off Views received 245 million listens in toto since April 29, according to the ever-reliable Nielsen tracking service.
Drake’s done more than nudge fellow Canuck Justin Bieber out of the top spot; Views’ streams were more than double those of Bieber’s Purpose. That number has been combined with digital sales to place Views at the top of the Billboard 200, with the equivalent of one million album sales. The publication notes that it’s a strong showing for the album, whose sales beat those of Adele’s 25 last year. Then again, 25 wasn’t even available for streaming anyway, which just makes this digital math everyone’s doing to arrive at new records all the more confusing. But since Kanye West’s The Life Of Pablo joined that quarter-billion listen club earlier this year, we expect him to weigh in any moment.