Travis Scott’s ‘Utopia’ Spends Second Week Atop Billboard 200
Written by djfrosty on August 13, 2023
Travis Scott’s Utopia rules the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated Aug. 19) for a second week, as the set earned 147,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Aug. 10 (down 70%), according to Luminate. The album charged in at No. 1 a week ago with 496,000 units earned in its first week — the biggest week for an R&B/hip-hop or rap album in 2023.
Utopia is the first rap album to spend its first two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in nearly two years, since Drake’s Certified Lover Boy logged its first three weeks at No. 1 (Sept. 18-Oct. 2, 2021 charts), of its five total (nonconsecutive) weeks atop the list. Utopia is the first rap album with more than a single week at No. 1 in over a year, since Tyler, the Creator’s Call Me If You Get Lost claimed a total of two weeks at No. 1, in two separate weeks (July 10, 2021, its debut frame, and April 30, 2022, charts).
Utopia leads a sleepy top 10 on the Billboard 200, which is absent of any debuts in the region for the second time in less than a month. Just three weeks ago, on the July 29-dated list, there were also no new debuts in the top 10.
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, compiled by Luminate. 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 Aug. 19, 2023-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Aug. 15. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
Of Utopia’s 147,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Aug. 10, SEA units comprise 110,000 (down 55%, equaling 145.99 million on-demand official streams of the streaming set’s 19 total songs), album sales comprise 37,000 (down 85%) and TEA units comprise less than 1,000 (down 58%).
Morgan Wallen’s chart-topping One Thing at a Time rises 3-2 on the Billboard 200 with 92,000 equivalent album units earned (down 4%), while the Barbie movie soundtrack steps 4-3 with 74,000 (down 18%), Taylor Swift’s former No. 1 Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) bumps 5-4 with 60,000 (down 9%) and Swift’s chart-topping Midnights ascends 8-5 with 56,000 (up 15%).
Swift’s former No. 1 Lover climbs 10-6 (51,000 equivalent album units; up 17%); Post Malone’s Austin falls 2-7 in its second week (50,000; down 55%); Peso Pluma’s Génesis slips 7-8 (47,000; down 6%); Swift’s former leader Folklore jumps 12-9 (44,000; up 9%) — as she boasts four albums in the top 10 for a third time, having become the first living artist to achieve the feat in nearly 60 years last month — and Wallen’s chart-topping Dangerous: The Double Album falls 9-10 (43,000; down 4%).
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.