Regardless of whether Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo will ever be fully released, it is now eligible to be included in Billboard’s rankings because it was ultimately made accessible for download on April 1 via Tidal and Kanye’s website. The album will now “debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart dated April 23, with over 90,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending April 7,” according to a report from Billboard.
With over 20,000 units coming from traditional album sales, The Life of Pablo will be the first No. 1 album where more than half of its album units were “generated by streaming equivalent albums.” With 31.25 percent of its 54,000 sales on the April 2 rankings coming from streams, Rihanna’s Anti is the next closest album to match The Life of Pablo’s streaming success.
This is all the more remarkable considering that over half a million copies of the record were reportedly downloaded illegаlly in February.
Additionally, Kanye tweeted, “I’m so happy that you guys like the music,” and informed reporters that a tour would be announced “soon.” Right now, I’m working on the tour designs.