ARIANA TAKES SECOND PLACE, TWICE

After a massive push by Republic amid the tightest battle in recent memory, Ariana Grande bowed at #2 on both the HITS SPS and album charts. The race was especially intense with labelmate Drake on the SPS side, with every stream counting. In the end, though, Drake and Warner Music Nashville’s Blake Shelton, who took #1 on the album side) were just bigger—though not by a lot.

While Ariana’s 176k SPS fell short of Drake’s total (178k), it should be noted that Drake has been dominating the streaming world since his Views went wide. His streams alone accounted for nearly 100k album-equivalent sales.