Playboi Carti’s Music was one of the year’s most anticipated albums. (It’s been one of the most anticipated albums of the year for the past few years, really.) So, here’s the non-surprising news: On the new Billboard 200 chart dated March 26, Music debuted in the No. 1 spot.
Billboard reports that per Luminate, the album had 298,000 equivalent album units earned in the US for the week ending March 20. However, Carti doesn’t agree with that number: In response to an Akademiks tweet noting the 298K sales number, Carti responded, “320.”
Even with Billboard‘s lower figure, Music still had the biggest week for a rap album in 2025 so far, and the second biggest week overall for all genres; The only album ahead of it is The Weeknd’s Hurry Up Tomorrow, which racked up 490,000 units in its opening week in February.
On top of that, songs from Music drew a total of 384 million on-demand streams. This is the biggest streaming week for an album in almost a year, since Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department had a massive second week in May with 428 million plays. Narrowing it down to rap, Music had the biggest streaming week since the debut week of Drake’s For All The Dogs, with 514 million streams in October 2023.
