Future Earns Sixth No. 1 Album on Billboard 200 Chart With ‘WIZRD’

It’s his sixth No. 1 album in just three-and-a-half years, the quickest accumulation of six leaders since Elton John in the ’70s.

Future collects his sixth No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart, as Future Hndrxx Presents: The WIZRD debuts atop the tally with 126,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Jan. 24, according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum, 15,000 were in album sales. The album was released on Jan. 18 via Freebandz/Epic Records.

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 are comprised of traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). The new Feb. 2-dated chart — where WIZRD debuts at No. 1 — will be posted in full on Billboard‘s websites on Jan. 29.

Future has tallied his six No. 1 albums in a remarkably quick amount of time — just three years, five months and three weeks. His first leader was DS2 on Aug. 8, 2015. He then scored No. 1s with What a Time to Be Alive (with Drake; Oct. 10, 2015), Evol (Feb. 27, 2016), a self-titled album (March 11, 2017), HNDRXX (March 18, 2017) and now WIZRD.

The last artist to earn six No. 1s in such a short span was Elton John. All seven of the Rocket Man’s No. 1s came in a space of just three years, three months and three weeks in the early 1970s. (His first six No. 1s, in fact, were separated by only two years, 10 months and 24 days.) John’s first No. 1 was Honky Chateau on July 15, 1972, and his seventh, and so far last No. 1, was Rock of the Westies on Nov. 8, 1975.

Future’s WIZRD starts with 126,000 units earned, of which 15,000 were in album sales; 2,000 were in TEA units, while the remaining 109,000 were in SEA units. That latter sum equates to 143.6 million on-demand audio streams for the album’s 20 tracks in the week ending Jan. 24. That also marks Future’s largest streaming week for an album, surpassing the 123.4 million streams WRLD on Drugs (his collaborative set with Juice WRLD) collected in its debut frame (at No. 2 on the chart dated Nov. 3, 2018).

At No. 2 on the new Billboard 200, Maggie Rogers’ Heard It in a Past Life arrives with 49,000 units. Of that sum, 37,000 were in album sales, making it the top-selling album of the week, as it bows at No. 1 on the Top Album Sales chart. The set’s first-week sum was aided by sales generated from a concert ticket/album sale redemption offer.

Heard It in a Past Life, released on Jan. 18 through Debay Sounds/Capitol Records, is the buzzy singer-songwriter’s major label full-length debut, and her first entry on the chart. Her only previous Billboard-charted collection was the five-song EP Now That the Light Is Fading (also through Debay/Capitol) on a handful of Billboard lists (just not the Billboard 200), including Heatseekers Albums (No. 4 peak) and Top Rock Albums (No. 39).

A trio of former leaders are up next, as Meek Mill’s Championships descends 5-6 (just under 37,000 units; down 13 percent), Post Malone’s beerbongs & bentleys drops 4-7 (a little over 35,000 units; down 17 percent) and Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s A Star Is Born soundtrack slips 6-8 (35,000 units; down 13 percent).

Country singer-songwriter Cody Johnson nets his first Billboard 200 top 10 effort, as his major label debut, Ain’t Nothin’ to It, starts at No. 9 with nearly 35,000 units (23,000 in album sales). The set was released through Johnson’s label CoJo via Warner Music Nashville. Johnson previously tallied a pair of independently distributed top 40-charting albums on the Billboard 200: Gotta Be Me (No. 11; Aug. 27, 2016) and Cowboy Like Me (No. 33; Feb. 1, 2014).

Closing out the new top 10 is Travis Scott’s former No. 1, Astroworld, falling 7-10 with 34,000 units (down 14 percent).

Heard is the highest-charting album by a solo woman in four months, since Carrie Underwood’s Cry Pretty opened at No. 1 on the Sept. 29, 2018-dated list. Heard is also the highest bow on the chart for a female artist’s full-length debut through a major label since Cardi B’s Invasion of Privacy began at No. 1 on April 21, 2018.

Heard is currently enjoying a radio hit with “Light On,” which spent a third week at No. 1 on the most recently-published Adult Alternative Songs airplay chart (dated Jan. 26). It’s also bubbling under the Adult Pop Songs airplay chart.

Back on the new Billboard 200, A Boogie Wit da Hoodie’s Hoodie SZN falls from No. 1 to No. 3 in its fifth week on the tally (49,000 units; down 13 percent) after two weeks on top. The Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse soundtrack dips 2-4 (39,000 units; down 25 percent), and 21 Savage’s I Am > I Was declines 3-5 (37,000 units; down 19 percent).

Source: billboard.com