Tyler The Creator’s new album Chromakopia tops the Billboard 200 albums chart this week with the highest sales total of any new rap album this year. Chromakopia earned 299,500 album equivalent units, according to Billboard, breaking down to 157,000 on-demand streams and 142,000 direct album sales. It’s the biggest first week of Tyler’s career; his last album, Call Me If You Get Lost, earned 169,000 album equivalent units, while its predecessor, Igor, racked up 165,000. The only higher rap debut of 2024 was the streaming re-issue of Travis Scott’s 2014 mixtape, Days Before Rodeo, which pulled in 361,000 equivalent units.
Here’s the thing, though: Tyler released on a Monday, foregoing an entire weekend of potential streams and sales, which means he could have outsold Scott by A LOT in a full week. It also goes to show that with a tight rollout and fan interest, early week releases are just as viable — perhaps even more so — than dropping on Friday. Of course, if every artist and label agreed to go back to Tuesdays, there’d be more competition, but it also seems that they wouldn’t hurt for sales and streams, as fans would have a whole week to discover new music and listen to it throughout the day, without the distractions of weekend entertainment and errands.
The rest of the top ten is as follows: at No. 2, Halsey’s The Great Impersonator, at No. 3, Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet, at No. 4, Kelsea Ballerini’s Patterns, at No. 5, Rod Wave’s Last Lap, at No. 6, Eminem’s The Death of Slim Shady, at No. 7, Gracie Abrams’ The Secret of Us, at No. 8 Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time, at No. 9, Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft , and at No. 10, GloRilla’s Glorious.
