UPDATE (9/5): As expected, the final numbers pretty much equate to HDD’s estimate. Official tallies: 326,000 pure album sales, 412,000 equivalent album units.
In 2011, The Weeknd was a faceless voice that had the internet buzzing with his Balloons Trilogy. Four years later, he’s on top of the Billboard charts.
It’s been a week since Beauty Behind the Madness was released and, looking at the numbers, over 300k fans showed their support. According to HDD, The Weeknd managed to moved 325,267 copies of his sophomore album – which more than triples Kiss Land‘s first week. Tack on the Track Equivalent Album (10 single sales = 1 album equivalent) and Streaming Equivalent Album (1,500 single streams = 1 album equivalent) figures, and Abel’s got a first week total of 415,267 album equivalent units.
Billboard’s final numbers arrive shortly, but seeing that the closest competition – Halsey’s Badlands – is only showing 111k in sales, it’s safe to say Abel has scored his first #1 album.
Congrats to The Weeknd and the whole XO squad.
