DRAKE SHATTERING RECORDS, MAKING HISTORY (UPDATE)

Since blasting off the launchpad early Friday morning, Drake’s Scorpion is rocketing into the stratosphere like nothing before it in the streaming era, as the 25-track album sets new records by the hour. Will it be the first album ever to blaze past 1 billion streams U.S. in its first week? And if he can do that here, what's possible worldwide?

Scorpion is averaging 10m streams per hour at Spotify, and its tracks occupy the Top 25 slots at Apple Music. It's already flown past the 100m streams mark.

Buckle up, because we’re watching history being made in real time.

Speaking of Spotify, they're working in conjunction with Republic, Cash Money and Young Money Records on its first-ever global dedicated artist takeover, dubbed “ScorpionSZN” in honor of Scorpion. It is the first time a single artist has taken over multiple Spotify playlists on the same day.

Drake is on the cover of RapCaviar, Beast Mode, Today’s Top Hits, Morning Commute and other playlists.

Drake's fifth official studio album, Scorpion consists of an "A Side" and a "B Side" and includes previously released smashes "Nice for What" and "God's Plan," while featuring the likes of Michael Jackson, Jay-Z and Ty Dolla $ign.

Scorpion follows the 2016 studio LP Views (now four-times platinum) and the 2017 mixtape More Life. For perspective, Views did more than 855k in first-week album sales and about 1.07m in total activity. At the time, the Apple Music exclusive broke records, becoming the first album to top a million on one digital service. More Life was released wide and bowed with 505k in total activity—essentially half its predecessor—but it wasn't a "proper album," and there was no physical.

By 11pm PT on Thursday night, the new YMCMB/Republic project had flown to #1 at iTunes, reportedly selling 30k units overnight. By the weekend, in addition to having retained the #1 slot on the album side, Drake was holding four positions on the iTunes singles Top 10, with "Nonstop" leading, followed by the MJ-spiced "Don't Matter to Me," "In My Feelings" and "Talk Up" f/Jay-Z.

With 22 songs, More Life shattered the one-week streaming record last year—finishing with 385m—and held it until labelmate Post Malone took the throne. How big will Scorpion get? The sky's the limit.

There's a @Drake for practically every mood. #ScorpionSZN is here. Listen now on Spotify 🦂https://t.co/Gfa32R9WN1 pic.twitter.com/p1qbGsac88

— Spotify (@Spotify) June 29, 2018