Beyonce’s Renaissance debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated August 13) with the biggest week of 2022 by a woman — and the second-biggest week of the year overall — as the set launches at the top of the chart with 332,000 equivalent album units earned in the US in the week ending Aug. 4, according to Luminate.
Remarkable, Renaissance — Beyoncé’s seventh solo number 1 album — is the first album released by a woman in 2022 to top the Billboard 200. The last woman at number 1 was Adele with 30, who reigned on the list for the first six weeks (Charts from December 4, 2021 – January 8, 2022). Especially both 30 and Renaissance were released through Columbia Records (with Renaissance published through Parkwood/Columbia).
Renaissance is Beyoncé’s seventh solo studio album and the first since the chart-toppingtopping Lemonade in 2016. She has since worked with husband Jay-Z on The Carters’ Everything is love (2018), released Homecoming: The Live Album and led The Lion King: The Gift soundtrack (both in 2019; all three reached the top five of the Billboard 200). All seven of her solo studio albums have also opened at the top of the list (outside of her output as part of Destiny’s Child), starting with Dangerous in love in 2003.
Unlike Beyoncé’s last two solo albums (Lemonade and her self-titled set in 2013), Renaissance was not a surprise release. The new set was announced in mid-June, preceded by lead single “Break My Soul” on June 20, and was available on physical formats (both CD and vinyl LP) on street date (July 29). Similar to her last two solo studio sets before that Renaissance both were initially available exclusively through streamers and digital retailers only, and their physical release came later.
Also, unlike her last two studio efforts, Renaissance was not ushered in with a long visual component – or, in fact, official music videos. The Lemonade project initially debuted on HBO through the movie of the same name, while her self-titled effort was initially sold exclusively through iTunes, accompanied by 18 music videos. As of August 7, there will be no official videos for it Renaissance have been released – only lyric videos and visualizers.
Also in the new top 10 on the Billboard 200: ATEEZ, ENHYPEN and Dance Gavin Dance all score their first top 10 albums as their latest release debuts in the region, while $uicideboy$ lands its third top 10 effort with the number 7- arrival of Sing Me a Lullaby, My Sweet Temptation.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the US based on multimetric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units include album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA), and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual songs sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscriber on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album.
From Renaissances 332,000 equivalent album units earned, album sales include 190,000; SEA units comprise 138,000 (equivalent to 179.06 million on-demand official streams of the set’s tracks), and TEA units comprise 4,000.
In 2022, the only album to have a bigger week, in terms of album units earned, was Harry Styles’ debut frame. harry’s house, which launched with 521,000 on the June 4 chart. So Columbia has the two biggest weeks of 2022, such as: Harry’s house was published through Erskine/Columbia. (As mentioned earlier, Renaissance has the biggest week of 2022 among women’s albums. It surpasses Lizzo’s debut frame Special, who earned 69,000 units in the week ending July 21, reflected on the July 30-dated chart.)
Renaissance records the biggest streaming week for a woman’s album earned by on-demand official streams in 2022, with 179.06 million. It is also the seventh biggest streaming debut of all albums in 2022 and Beyoncé’s biggest streaming week ever. (Note: The biggest streaming week for a woman’s album in 2022 was when Doja Cat’s Planet Her garnered 46.68 million streams for its songs in the tracking week ending Feb. 3, as shown on the 12-dated chart. The previous biggest debut streaming week in 2022 for a woman was recorded by Lizzo’s Specialwith 37.07 million streams for its songs in the tracking week ending July 21, shown in the July 30 chart.)
In terms of traditional album sales, with 190,000 sold, Renaissance publishes the third-largest week of sales for an album in 2022, and the largest by a woman. The only bigger sales weeks so far this year were captured by the opening lines of Harry’s house (330,000) and BTS’ Proof (266,000).
Renaissance sold 121,000 copies on CD, 43,000 through digital downloads and 26,000 on vinyl.
Renaissances Early album sales are largely driven by direct sales of the album to consumers through Internet stores, with 72 percent of sales in the first week coming through Internet retailers (136,000 of 190,000). Those sellers included Beyoncé’s official online store (where they sold four limited edition deluxe boxed editions of the album with a T-shirt and a CD – all of which are sold out).
Beyoncé’s web store was also the exclusive follow-week seller of the album’s vinyl LP, which had a limited run and alternate cover and sold 26,000 copies. That’s the biggest week of sales for a female R&B/hip-hop album on vinyl by a woman in modern times since Luminate began tracking sales in 1991. The vinyl LP sold out on Beyoncé’s web store before the album hit September 29. was released in July. 16, the album will have a wide release on vinyl through all retailers, with expanded packaging and the standard album cover.
While Renaissances internet sales were hefty, the album would still have been number 1 on the Billboard 200 without any internet vendor sales. Furthermore, the set would have been #1 without selling a single copy, as it would still have topped the list by streaming activity alone (with streaming equivalent to 138,000 SEA units).
Finally, as noted earlier, Renaissance is the first #1 album on the Billboard 200 by a solo woman since Adele’s 30 concluded its six-week run on the January 8 list. That 30-week gap between No. 1 is the longest on the chart to be absent since 2017, when there was a 31-album. week dry period between Lady Gaga’s Joanne (one week at number 1 on November 12, 2016) and Halsey’s hopeless Fountain Kingdom (24 June 2017).
bad bunnies A summer without you falls to No. 2 on the Billboard 200 after seven non-consecutive weeks at the top of the chart (104,000 equivalent album units earned; up 7 percent). On the 20-dated chart, the album will benefit from the wide CD release on August 5.
ATEEZ lists their first top 10 as The World EP.1: Movement comes in at number 3 with 50,000 equivalent album units earned. Of that amount, album sales amount to 47,000; SEA units comprise 3,000 (equivalent to 4.02 million on-demand official streams of the set’s seven tracks), and TEA units comprise a negligible amount. Previously, the South Korean group had risen to number 42 in 2021 by Zero: Fever Part.3.
Like many K-pop releases, the CD configuration of The World EP.1 was released in deluxe collectible packs (eight in total, including a version exclusive to indie retailers), each containing a standard set of items and randomized elements (such as photo cards); 97 percent of the album’s first week sales were on CD. The remaining 3 percent was sales of digital albums (just over 1,000). The set was not released in any other format, such as vinyl or cassette.
Morgan Wallen’s former number 1 Dangerous: The Double Album dips 2-4 with 49,000 equivalent album units (up 1 percent) and Styles’ chart-topping chart Harry’s house drops 3-5 by 46,000 units (-4 percent down).
ENHYPEN lands its first top 10 album in the Billboard 200 as Manifesto: Day 1 debuts at number 6 with 39,000 equivalent album units earned, following the set’s physical release on July 29. The six-track effort was released on July 4 through streaming services and digital retailers. Of the 39,000 units earned, album sales comprise 38,000, while SEA units comprise 1,000 (equivalent to 1.29 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs) and TEA units represent a negligible amount.
manifest is the fourth top 20 hit album for the South Korean group, which previously ranked number 11 with Dimension: Dilemma for 2021.
The CD configuration of manifest was released in deluxe collectible packs (11 in total, including a version sold exclusively through Target), each containing a standard set of items and random elements (such as photo cards). In fact, all sales for the week were on CD (a negligible number were sold via digital download); the set has not been issued in any other physical format.
$uicideboy$ score their third top 10 album on the Billboard 200 as Sing Me a Lullaby, My Sweet Temptation bows at number 7 with 37,000 equivalent album units earned. Of that amount, SEA units comprise 33,000 (equivalent to 45.31 million on-demand streams of the set’s songs), album sales comprise 4,000 and TEA units comprise a negligible amount. The rap duo already made the top 10 with Long term effects of suffering (No. 7 in 2021) and I want to die in New Orleans (No. 9, 2018).
Dance Gavin Dance Claims Its First Billboard 200 Top 10 Album As Jackpot Juicer starts at No. 8 with 33,500 equivalent album units earned. Of that amount, album sales include 25,500 (the band’s best sales week ever); SEA units comprise 8,000 (equivalent to 10.37 million on-demand streams of the album’s songs), and TEA units comprise a negligible amount. The album’s first week sales were boosted by the availability of multiple color vinyl variants, with the album’s vinyl edition totaling 14,000 copies (the week’s second best-selling vinyl set behind Renaissance).
Jackpot Juicer is Dance Gavin Dance’s 11th attempt to hit the Billboard 200 and the fifth to reach the top 40.
Rounding out the new top 10 of the Billboard 200 are a few former No. 1s: Futures I never liked you (falls 5-9 with 31,000 equivalent album units, down 7%) and Drake’s Honestly, never mind (6-10; 29,000, down 9%).
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes an exhaustive and thorough review of all data submitted in compiling the weekly rankings. Luminate reviews and verifies data and removes suspicious or unverifiable activity using established criteria before making and publishing final chart calculations. In conjunction with Billboard, data deemed suspicious and unverifiable will be disqualified prior to final calculation.
This story first appeared on billboard.com.