Drake Breaks Streaming Songs Record, Holds Chart's Top Eight Positions
He also scores the first 19 positions of the On-Demand Streaming Songs ranking.
Drake isn’t just setting records on the Billboard Hot 100 or Billboard 200 charts with his new album, Scorpion. The hip-hop star, whose album broke the single-week streaming record both nationally and globally, storms onto Billboard’s Streaming Songs chart on the way to giving Drake the most titles on the chart in its six-year history.
Along with the 25 songs from Scorpion, Drake also makes an appearance on the ranking dated July 14 as part of “Yes Indeed” with Lil Baby and with a featured credit on BlocBoy JB’s “Look Alive” and Migos’ “Walk It Talk It,” giving Drake 28 titles on Streaming Songs at once. That breaks the previous record of most titles simultaneously on the chart, 21, held by Drake on the April 8, 2017-dated tally following the release of 2017’s More Life. He also has the only other week with at least 20 titles on the chart at once, scoring 20 on the May 21, 2016-dated survey after releasing Views.
Drake holds down the top eight spots of Streaming Songs and nine of the top 10. Both are records; previously, Post Malone had charted the most songs at once in the top 10, scoring eight earlier this year (May 12) upon the release of beerbongs & bentleys. But as far as Drake’s dominance in the first eight positions goes, no other artist had even held down the first three spots of Streaming Songs, let alone its first eight.
It’s important to note, however, that the latest Streaming Songs chart is the first to adopt new methodology weighing certain on-demand streams differently than others. Whereas the chart previously weighted programmed streams half as much as on-demand streams, the ranking (concurrent with the Hot 100) places higher importance on paid on-demand streams, followed by ad-supported on-demand streams like YouTube and then programmed streams like Pandora’s non-premium tier. Thus, though Drake holds the top eight spots of Streaming Songs, a song like XXXTENTACION’s “Sad!” -- No. 9 on the July 14 chart -- actually has the second-most streams overall in the June 29-July 5 tracking week but receives a lower Streaming Songs ranking since more of its streams were ad-supported.
Drake leads Streaming Songs with “Nonstop,” which was released concurrently with Scorpion on June 29 rather than as a promotional or radio single beforehand, like “Nice for What” and “God’s Plan.” The song debuts with 58.6 million streams, according to Nielsen Music, 57.2 million of which come via on-demand audio streams.
The strong on-demand audio debut of "Nonstop" also lifts it to No. 1 on the On-Demand Streaming Songs chart, which includes just paid or ad-supported streams from on-demand audio clients. There, Drake not only becomes the first artist to make up the entire top 10, he also takes up Nos. 1-19, with Juice WRLD’s “Lucid Dreams” at No. 20 -- the first song to break up the Drake train. Drake’s dominance bests both Post Malone and Kendrick Lamar, who had scored nine of the top 10 on On-Demand Streaming Songs on the charts dated May 12 and May 6, 2017, respectively.
Drake’s 27 songs on On-Demand Streaming Songs is also, naturally, a record, besting the 22 songs he charted there on the April 15, 2017; April 8, 2017; and May 21, 2016 rankings.
With No. 1s on both charts thanks to “Nonstop,” Drake extends his lead for most No. 1s on both. He now has six No. 1s on Streaming Songs (Justin Bieber is second with four) and is the first to 10 on On-Demand Streaming Songs (followed by Bieber with six).