Juice WRLD Debuts at No. 1, Shatters 2020 Sales Records

by Ahalya Narayanan - 20.07.2020 First Published 20,July 2020, 4:53 PM

Juice WRLD makes history with his first posthumous release, “Legends Never Die”. The 21-track album has debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart, also recording the biggest debut for an album in 2020.

Juice WRLD earns the biggest debut sales week for a posthumous album by any artist this century (since The Notorious B.I.G. & 2Pac in 1997).
— chart data (@chartdata) July 19, 2020

Selling 497,000 units, “Legends Never Die” has raked in the highest unit sales in a debut week, in 2020. Further, debuting at No. 1 on the chart ranking, Juice WRLD surpasses last week’s topper – Pop Smoke who stood tall with his first posthumous release. WRLD’s debut at No. 1 also marks the first time the first two spots on the Billboard 200 albums chart are occupied, back to back, by posthumous releases.

On accumulating 497,000 units in sales, Juice WRLD doesn’t just score the biggest debut of 2020; he also joins an elite league of high-sellers. With these numbers, “Legends Never Die” scores the biggest debut for a hip-hop artist in two years, only being succeeded by Travis Scott’s sales for “Astroworld” in 2018 (537,000 units). Further, the only album to rake in a higher debut week than Juice WRLD’s is Taylor Swift with her mega debut in 2019 when “Lover” raked in 867,000 units.

Biggest US debuts of 2020
#1 Legends Never Die, @JuiceWorlddd 497K
#2 After Hours @theweeknd 444K
#3 MAP OF THE SOUL: 7 @BTS_twt 422K
#4 Eternal Atake 288K
#5 Music to Be Murdered By 279K
#6 Chromatica 274K
#7 Pop Smoke 251K
#8 MANIC 239K
#9 Here and Now 233K
#10 Changes 231K
— chart data (@chartdata) July 19, 2020

“Legends Never Die” also scores the highest streaming week of 2020, amassing a total of 422.63 million streams in its debut week. Additionally, it becomes the fourth biggest album in its streaming week, surpassed by Drake’s “Scorpion”, which raked in 745.92 million, Lil Wayne’s “Tha Carter V” with 433.02 million and Post Malone’s “Beerbongs & Bentleys” 431.34 million.

While “Legends Never Die” occupies the top spot, Pop Smoke comes in at No. 2 with “Shoot for the Stars, Aim for The Moon”. Hamilton sits comfortably at No. 3, while Lil Baby’s “My Turn” drops to No. 4. Post Malone stays steady at No. 5 with “Hollywood’s Bleeding”, while DaBaby makes his way to No. 6 with “Blame it on Baby”.

By: Ahalya Narayanan