Drake’s Certified Lover Boy returns to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated Nov. 6) for a fifth nonconsecutive week on top, as the set rebounds from No. 2. It earned 74,000 equivalent album units (down 10%) in the U.S. in the week ending Oct. 28, according to MRC Data.
Plus, Lana Del Rey’s Blue Banisters debuts at No. 8 on the Billboard 200, marking her eighth top 10 album, and Elton John’s The Lockdown Sessions launches at No. 10, starting as his 21st top 10 and granting him a span of over 50 years of appearing in the chart’s top tier.
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, Nov. 6, 2021-dated chart (on which Certified returns to No. 1) will post in full on billboard.com Nov. 2. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
Of Certified’s 74,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Oct. 28, SEA units comprise 73,000 (down 10%, equaling 99.9 million on-demand streams of the album’s songs); album sales account for less than 1,000 (down 21%); and TEA units also contribute less than 1,000 (down 9%).
Notably, the set matches the total weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 of Drake’s prior proper LP, Scorpion, in 2018. Of his 10 No. 1s, the two trail only the reign of Views, which spent 13 weeks at the summit in 2016.
Morgan Wallen’s former 10-week Billboard 200 No. 1 Dangerous: The Double Album pushes 8-2 with 42,000 equivalent album units earned (up 1%); Doja Cat’s Planet Her climbs 7-3 (41,000, down 1%); YoungBoy Never Broke Again’s former one-week leader Sincerely, Kentrell lifts 6-4 (39,000, down 11%); and Olivia Rodrigo’s five-frame topper Sour ascends 9-5 (38,000, down 5%).
Moneybagg Yo’s former two-week Billboard 200 No. 1 A Gangsta’s Pain zooms 34-6, up 128% to 36,000 units following an expanded reissue Oct. 22 with seven additional tracks.
Young Thug’s Punk drops to No. 7 a week after debuting atop the Billboard 200 (34,000, down 62%).
Lana Del Rey achieves her eighth Billboard 200 top 10, and her second of 2021, as Blue Banisters steps in at No. 8 with 33,000 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum, album sales comprise 19,000; SEA units total 14,000 (equaling 18.6 million on-demand streams of the album’s songs); and TEA units make for a nominal sum.
Del Rey visited the Billboard 200 top 10 earlier this year with Chemtrails Over the Country Club, which debuted and peaked at No. 2 on the April 3-dated chart. All told, Blue Banisters is Del Rey’s eighth consecutive, and total, top 10. After her only charting effort to miss the bracket, her self-titled set which reached No. 20 in January 2012, she began her active top 10 streak with Born to Die, which opened and peaked at No. 2 in February 2012.
Lil Nas X’s Montero rises 10-9 on the Billboard 200 with 33,000 units, down 8%.
Rounding out the Billboard 200’s top 10, Elton John lands his 21st top 10 album, as his all-star, all-collaborative release The Lockdown Sessions debuts at No. 10 with 29,000 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum, album sales comprise 17,000; SEA units total 10,000 (equaling 13.1 million on-demand streams of the album’s songs); and TEA units account for 2,000.
Lockdown includes John’s latest top 40 Billboard Hot 100 hit, “Cold Heart” (Pnau Remix), with Dua Lipa, as well as collaborations with a variety of artists, including Young Thug and Nicki Minaj (“Always Love You”), Charlie Puth (“After All”), Eddie Vedder (“E-Ticket”), Stevie Wonder (“Finish Line”) and Stevie Nicks (“Stolen Car”).
John notched his first Billboard 200 top 10 over 50 years ago, when his self-titled album climbed 11-7 on the Jan. 30, 1971-dated chart; it peaked at No. 4 a week later (Feb. 6, 1971). (Breaking down his 21 top 10s by decade: 13 in the ’70s, two in the ’90s, one in the ’00s, four in the ’10s and now one in the ’20s.)
John is in the select group of acts with at least 20 top 10 albums on the Billboard 200, from March 24, 1956, when the list began publishing on a regular, weekly basis, through the new, Nov. 6, 2021, survey. Here’s an updated leaderboard.
Most Billboard 200 Top 10s:
37, The Rolling Stones
34, Barbra Streisand
32, The Beatles
32, Frank Sinatra
27, Elvis Presley
23, Bob Dylan
22, Madonna
21, Elton John
21, Paul McCartney/Wings
21, Bruce Springsteen
21, George Strait
20, Prince
(The Kidz Bop Kids music brand has collected 24 top 10s, in 2005-16, with its series of kid-friendly covers of hit singles. The franchise’s early albums were performed mostly by anonymous studio singers, although later releases focused on branding named talent.)
