Rihanna Lands Her Biggest Streaming Week Ever Post-Super Bowl
Written by djfrosty on February 21, 2023
Rihanna logged her largest streaming week ever in the U.S. following her Super Bowl LVII halftime show performance on Feb. 12.
According to tracking firm Luminate, which provides data for Billboard’s charts, her collected songs (on which she is the primary artist, per Luminate) earned 166.13 million U.S. on-demand official streams in the week ending Feb. 16. That’s up 155.6% compared to the previous week’s sum of 65 million.
Rihanna’s previous best week by streams – and only other week where she surpassed 100 million – was the week ending Feb. 25, 2016, when her collected songs rung up 101.53 million clicks in the U.S. (shortly after the release of her most recent studio album, Anti).
Rihanna’s top five most-streamed songs in the week ending Feb. 16, by official on-demand streams in the U.S., were “Umbrella,” featuring Jay-Z (9.53 million; up 203.4%), “Lift Me Up” (8.68 million; up 31.5%), “Diamonds” (8.44 million; up 288.2%), “Love on the Brain” (8.11 million; up 105.4%) and “We Found Love,” featuring Calvin Harris (7.61 million; up 264.5%). Of those, Rihanna performed three during her halftime show: “Umbrella,” “Diamonds” and “We Found Love.” (“Lift Me Up,” meanwhile, is her only song released in a lead role this decade, having arrived last October.)
On the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart (dated Feb. 25), “Umbrella,” “Diamonds” and “We Found Love” (all former No. 1s) re-enter at Nos. 37, 44 and 48, respectively, while “Lift Me Up” climbs 52-41 (after it debuted and peaked at No. 2 on the Nov. 12, 2022-dated chart).
Over on the Streaming Songs chart (dated Feb. 25), six Rihanna tracks dot the 50-position ranking. “Umbrella” debuts at No. 25, “Lift Me Up” re-enters at No. 35, “Diamonds” re-enters at No. 39, “Love on the Brain” re-enters at No. 41, “We Found Love” debuts at No. 45 and “Needed Me” re-enters at No. 48. (“Umbrella” and “We Found Love” were released in 2007 and 2011, before the launch of the Streaming Songs chart in January 2013.)
Halftime Songs Only: As for only the dozen songs Rihanna performed during the halftime show, they tallied 75.12 million on-demand official streams in the U.S. (up 273% compared to the 20.11 million they earned in the previous week). The most-streamed halftime tune was, as noted earlier, “Umbrella,” with 9.53 million clicks.
Even More Gains: Outside of Rihanna’s streaming increases, the entertainer saw robust gains in overall equivalent album units, traditional album sales and digital track sales in the week ending Feb. 16. In terms of equivalent album units, her catalog earned 142,000 for the week (up 179.3%). Her album sales grew to 12,000 (up 338%) and her digital track sales jumped to 73,000 (up 433%).
All Feb. 25-dated charts will be posted in full on Billboard’s website on Feb. 22, one day later than usual, owed to the Presidents’ Day holiday on Feb. 20 in the U.S. For all chart news, following @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.