Drake’s Certified Lover Boy rules the Billboard 200 albums chart for a third consecutive and total week, as the set earned 171,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Sept. 23 (down 28%), according to MRC Data. The album opened atop the list two weeks ago with the year’s biggest week for an album: 613,000 units.
With a third week at No. 1, Certified has the total most weeks atop the list for an R&B/hip-hop effort in over a year, since Lil Baby’s My Turn spent its fifth and final nonconsecutive week at No. 1 on the July 11, 2020-dated chart.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Oct. 2, 2021-dated chart (where Certified Lover Boy spends a third week at No. 1) will be posted in full on Billboard’s website on Sept. 28. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
Of Certified Lover Boy’s 171,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Sept. 23, SEA units comprise 165,000 units (down 28%, equaling 222.16 million on-demand streams of the album’s 21 tracks), album sales comprise 4,000 (down 40%) and TEA units comprise 2,000 units (down 14%).
Certified is the third album in 2021 to spend at least three weeks in a row atop the Billboard 200, following Billie Eilish’s Happier Than Ever (three total weeks at No. 1, all consecutive) and Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album (10 weeks at No. 1, all consecutive).
Meanwhile, with Certified’s third week at No. 1, Drake’s total weeks atop the list, across all of 10 of his No. 1 albums, now rises to 30 weeks. He first led in July 2010 with Thank Me Later, and his 30 weeks on top are the most among male acts in the ’10s and ’20s; overall in that span, he ranks third, after Taylor Swift (42) and Adele (34). In the chart’s entire 65-year history, The Beatles boast the most weeks at No. 1, with 132.
Lil Nas X’s Montero debuts at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with 126,000 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum, SEA units comprise 102,000 (equaling 147.16 million on-demand streams of the set’s tracks), album sales comprise nearly 22,000 and TEA units comprise a little under 3,000.
Montero is promoted as Lil Nas X’s first full-length album, and it follows his debut project, the EP 7, which debuted and peaked at No. 2 on the July 6, 2019-dated chart with 77,000 units earned in its first week. 7 later scored a Grammy Award nomination for album of the year.
Montero was preceded by a pair of top two-charting hits on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart: “Montero (Call Me by Your Name)” (No. 1) and “Industry Baby,” with Jack Harlow, which peaked at No. 2 in August.
NCT 127’s Sticker: The 3rd Album bows at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, marking the second top 10 and highest-charting release for the act. The Korean pop group’s latest effort launches with 62,000 equivalent album units earned, of which album sales comprise 58,000, SEA units comprise 3,000 (equaling 4.66 million on-demand streams of the set’s 11 songs) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum. Like many K-pop releases, the CD edition of the album was issued in multiple collectible packages and boxed sets (nine, including a Target-exclusive edition). NCT 127 previously hit the Billboard 200’s top 10 with NCT #127: Neo Zone, The 2nd Album, which debuted and peaked at No. 5 on the March 21, 2020-dated chart.
Kanye West’s former No. 1 Donda falls from No. 2 to No. 4 with 57,000 equivalent album units earned (down 27%), while Olivia Rodrigo’s chart-topping Sour slips from No. 4 to No. 5 with 51,000 units (down 6%). Doja Cat’s Planet Her is a non-mover at No. 6 with 47,000 units (down 5%), Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album rises one spot to No. 7 with 39,000 (up less than 1%), and The Kid LAROI’s former leader F*ck Love falls one rung to No. 8 with 38,000 units (down 3%).
Rounding out the top 10 are Eilish’s former No. 1 Happier Than Ever, which is up one slot to No. 9 with 32,000 equivalent album units earned (down 4%), and Kacey Musgraves’ Star-Crossed, which falls from No. 3 to No. 10 in its second week with 29,000 units (down 62%).
