Travis Scott’s ‘Utopia’ Debuts With the Second Biggest Streaming Numbers of 2023
Travis Scott’s features-loaded “Utopia” tops the albums list this week at No. 1, touting the third-biggest week of 2023 for any album (behind Morgan Wallen and Taylor Swift) and the second-largest streaming week of the year.
The 19-song set expands on Scott’s discography after several years of hiatus between this and his last full-length, 2018’s “Astroworld.” That album and Scott’s image at the time were badly tarnished by the deaths that occurred at his 2021 Astroworld festival and he remained relatively low-key — appearing as a featured artist on other songs and limiting his live appearances. However, the prospect of “Utopia” had already been circulating online, since Scott had been teasing the album in the year prior.
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That anticipation was reflected in its opening stats: 496,000 units earned in the U.S., plus two singles in the top five of the Billboard Hot 100, 331 million streams and the biggest vinyl sales week for a hip-hop or rap album since Luminate (the data company behind the Billboard charts) began tracking sales in 1991.
Scott also has two top five songs on Billboard’s singles chart including “Meltdown,” featuring Drake at No. 3, and “Fe!n,” featuring Playboi Carti, at No. 5. The songs racked up 32.2 million and 25.6 million streams, respectively. With this, Playboi Carti earns the first top-five hit of his career, surpassing his feature on Drake’s “Pain 1993” in 2020. Before that, “Utopia’s” “K-pop,” with the Weeknd and Bad Bunny, debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Elsewhere, Post Malone earns his fifth consecutive top-five-charting album with the No. 2 entrance of “Austin.” The set collected 113,000 units earned and 101 million streams. Like “Utopia,” “Austin’s” vinyl sales made a significant impact, tallying 11,500 copies sold and marking Post Malone’s biggest week ever on vinyl.
Morgan Wallen’s “One Thing at a Time” is at No. 3 with 96,000 equivalent album units in its 22nd week on the chart. The rest of the top 10 is comprised of the “Barbie” soundtrack at No. 4 (after debuting at No. 2); Taylor Swift’s “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” at No. 5; NewJeans’ “Get Up” is No. 6 in its second week; and Peso Pluma’s “Génesis” is No. 7. Swift and Wallen reappear towards the end of the top 10 with “Midnights” at No. 8, Wallen’s “Dangerous: The Double Album” at No. 9 and Swift’s “Lover” at No. 10.
Back on the songs chart, Wallen’s “Last Night,” the leading single off his latest album now ties with Harry Styles’ “As It Was” as the longest-running No. 1 hit of the decade on the Hot 100 with both scoring 15 weeks each.
Luke Combs’ cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” is back at No. 2 for a fifth week with a strong push in radio airplay (logging 77.4 million in radio impressions). Last week, Combs and Wallen’s aforementioned singles made Billboard chart history when Jason Aldean’s “Try That In a Small Town” entered the list at No. 1, marking the first time three country singles occupied the peak. This week, Aldean’s single drops to No. 21.
Swift’s “Cruel Summer” is now at No. 4 on the Hot 100 and Rema and Selena Gomez’s “Calm Down” is at No. 6. Rounding out the end of the top 10 for singles is Gunna’s “Fukumean” at No. 7; Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice’s “Barbie World,” with Aqua, keeps at No. 8; Olivia Rodrigo’s “Vampire” is at No. 9 and Dua Lipa’s “Dance the Night” enters the top at No. 10.
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