Meek Mill should have the No. 1 album this week after the release of his triumphant comeback, Championships, but it appears last week’s Nielsen discrepancy has delayed this week’s charts — and Meek’s final triumph on the Top 200. According to The New York Times, Championships should have landed at the top of the Billboard 200 with 179,000 sales, over 100,000 more than nearest competitor Lil Baby with 75,000.
However, Billboard and Nielsen, the sales tracking agency that supplies data to Billboard for its charts, are late this week in their reporting, which usually falls on Sunday and Monday, respectively. Billboard posts its Top 10 albums on Sunday, while Nielsen subscribers are able to view the actual sales information Monday. Instead of the usual reporting today, Nielsen issued a statement that it was double-checking the numbers and suspended access to sales info. While we understand the urgency to get this information to our clients,” the company explained, “it is critical that we perform a thorough and complete review of the data before returning the chart functionality to our products and services.”
While no further explanation was given, the Times speculates that today’s delays are likely related to last week’s snafu in which Travis Scott’s Astroworld narrowly passed Tekashi 69’s Dummy Boy to take the top spot. Billboard noted that a “processing discrepancy” in the data received may have led to a premature announcement of the incorrect No. 1. Incidentally, something similar happened to Meek Mill last year with the release of Wins & Losses, when it was Spotify that held up the release of the list for several days. This time around, Meek should end up a lot more satisfied with the eventual result.
Meek Mill is a Warner Music artist. .
Championships is out now via Maybach Music Group and Atlantic Records.
