‘Blonde’ debuts at #1 on Billboard 200

Frank Ocean’s Blonde sits atop the Billboard 200 chart as the most popular album in the United States. It marks Ocean’s first Billboard number-one album, after his 2012 project Channel Orange debuted and peaked at number two.

Blonde sold 276,000 album-equivalent units, including 65.4 million streams, in the week ending August 25—only five days after it debuted as an Apple Music and iTunes exclusive. The impressive sales figures would likely be even higher if the album’s distribution had not been limited to Apple’s platforms. The analytics company Muso reported that Blonde was illegally downloaded more than 750,000 times during the same five-day period.

Ocean’s visual album Endless, released a day before Blonde, is not eligible for Billboard’s charts in its current form as an Apple Music-exclusive music video. The album’s tracks are not available for individual streaming, and the video cannot be purchased; thus, its metrics cannot be tracked for the Billboard 200 or Music Video Sales charts.

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‘Blonde’ debuts at #1 on Billboard 200
‘Blonde’ debuts at #1 on Billboard 200

Frank Ocean’s Blonde is the most popular album in the United States. It sold 276,000 album-equivalent units, including 65.4 million streams, in the week ending August 25—only five days after its release as an Apple Music and iTunes exclusive. The album is Ocean’s first number one on the chart, after his 2012 record Channel Orange peaked at number two.

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‘Blonde’ debuts at #1 on Billboard 200
‘Blonde’ debuts at #1 on Billboard 200

Frank Ocean’s Blonde is the most popular album in the United States. It sold 276,000 album-equivalent units, including 65.4 million streams, in the week ending August 25—only five days after its release as an Apple Music and iTunes exclusive. The album is Ocean’s first number one on the chart, after his 2012 record Channel Orange peaked at number two.

Wolfgang Tillmans photographs Frank Ocean for ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ magazine
Wolfgang Tillmans photographs Frank Ocean for ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ magazine

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Frank Ocean shares photo series “Glitterboy Down (Best Day Ever)” in his zine
Frank Ocean shares photo series “Glitterboy Down (Best Day Ever)” in his zine

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