Rihanna is aiming to score her second No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart with Anti, according to industry forecasters. The set could earn upward of 175,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Feb. 4, which may power the set to a jump to No. 1 on the chart dated Feb. 20. Of that sum, perhaps 130,000 could be in pure album sales.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week based on multi-metric consumption, which includes traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). The top 10 of the new Feb. 20, 2016-dated Billboard 200 chart is scheduled to be revealed on Billboard’s websites on Sunday, Feb. 7.
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Anti, which is Rihanna’s eighth studio album, arrived on the chart dated Feb. 13 at No. 27, after being available for only a fraction of the charting week. The album was released through Tidal's streaming service on the evening of Jan. 27. (It was not released commercially until Jan. 28 through Tidal, and then through all digital retailers on Jan. 29. A physical CD release for the album is scheduled for Feb. 5.)
If Anti reaches No. 1, it would mark the second chart-topper for Rihanna, following her previous studio effort, 2012’s Unapologetic. It bowed atop the list with 238,000 albums sold in its first week, according to Nielsen Music.
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Other albums heading for the top 10 on the upcoming Billboard 200 chart include Kevin Gates’ Islah (with perhaps 100,000 units), Sia’s This Is Acting (80,000) and Charlie Puth’s Nine Track Mind (65,000).