2017'S NEW CHAMP (UPDATE)
Kendrick Lamar will not only best Drake's first-week total for the top debut of the year—he'll do it by a substantial margin.
DAMN. will surpass 300 million streams; it's only the second title to do so in a single week. The first, of course, was Drake's More Life with 385 million streams in the week ending 3/23/17. With album sales projecting to 325k (100k more than More Life), our updated SPS projection is 560k, giving Kendrick, Top Dawg's TDE crew and Team Interscope the year's top debut by a decisive margin.
It's worth noting that Drake's set, which was released off-cycle (its first week was two days shy of a week), scored global streams in excess of 800m. His status as a streaming colossus has never been in doubt.
Combined album and track sales for DAMN. will make up more than 60% of the first-week total. More Life's sales represented less than 50% of its first week.
