For just a little more than a week, it has been constant Rihanna-mania. In that short time-span, the singer went on to release her newest single, ‘Work,’ featuring Drake, and took things up another notch and released her eighth studio album, ANTI. While not a surprise release in the same fashion of Beyonce’s self-titled extravaganza, fans were met with excitement and plenty of other emotions as the album became available just over a week ago without official notice. Released exclusively to Tidal first, and met with free downloads for fans from the streaming service, those willing to spend money on the piece of art were allowed to do so as the album became available on iTunes this time last week. Despite being it’s free availability via other means, fans of the singer came out in strong enough numbers to see her land atop of this week’s upcoming Billboard Top 200 chart.
According to Hits Daily Double, Including streaming, ANTI‘s final numbers bowed out at the end of this week with 172,235 SPS equivalent copies moved. Coming in at No. 2 is none other than Adele’s 25 with 112,654 SPS, and rounding things off is Kevin Gates with 112, 143 SPS, which lands him the No. 1 Hip-Hop album in the country. With physical copies of ANTI being made available today, along with finally being released on Spotify and Apple Music, it wouldn’t come as a surprise if the singer remains at the top of the chart for an additional week. Until then, celebration for Rihanna and Kevin Gates are definitely in order.