Wednesday, December 17, 2025

Charts: Kanye West Debuts Number 1, Breaks a Record Without Actual CDs

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Kanye West must be going crazy. “The Life of Pablo” debuts at number 1 with 90,000 streams in its first week of actual availability.

To put this in perspective: The number 1 physical CD-digital download was Chris Stapleton’s “Traveller” with just 59,000 copies. Even combined with his streaming number, STapleton finished second to Kanye. Stapleton’s total total was just 72,877.

Hitsdailydouble explains that 100 million “streams” equals 65,000 “stream equivalent albums.”
Kanye’s 90,000 included 25,000 downloads of “Pablo” from his website. Imagine if “Pablo” were available in a normal way– for download on amazon and iTunes. But these are impressive numbers.

Without Kanye and “The Life of Pablo,” the business was silent.

Zayn Malik dropped a whopping 86% in his second week. He was a flash in the pan with “Mind of Mine.” Pop goes the weasel.

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Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.

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