Rod Wave’s Beautiful Mind bows atop the Billboard 200 chart (dated Aug. 27), scoring the rapper his second No. 1 album. The set enters with 115,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Aug. 18, according to Luminate. He previously topped the list with his last release, SoulFly, which opened at No. 1 on the chart dated April 10, 2021.
Also in the new top 10 of the Billboard 200, Megan Thee Stallion scores her fifth top 10, all earned consecutively, as Traumazine starts at No. 4.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Aug. 27, 2022-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Tuesday (Aug. 23). For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
Of Beautiful Mind’s 115,000 equivalent album units earned, SEA units comprise 113,000 (equaling 157.73 million on-demand official streams of the set’s 24 tracks), album sales comprise 2,000 and TEA units comprise a negligible sum.
All told, Beautiful Mind is Wave’s fourth straight top 10 effort on the Billboard 200 — the entirety of his charting releases. Aside from the chart-topping SoulFly, for a week in 2021, he also logged a top 10 each in 2020 (Pray 4 Love, No. 2) and 2019 (Ghetto Gospel, No. 10).
Beautiful Mind was led by the single “Cold December,” which premiered in January and marked the artist’s sixth top 40-charting hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in February (peaking at No. 38). At the top of May, the album was announced for a June 3 release, but was eventually pushed back until Aug. 12.
Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti falls 1-2 on the latest Billboard 200, after eight nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1, with 108,000 equivalent album units earned (down less than 1%). Beyoncé’s chart-topping Renaissance is a non-mover at No. 3 with 64,000 units (down 29%).
Megan Thee Stallion notches her fifth top 10 album on the Billboard 200, all earned in a row, as Traumazine debuts at No. 4 with 63,000 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum, SEA units comprise 54,000 (equaling 85.72 million on-demand official streams of the set’s 18 tracks), album sales comprise 8,000 and TEA units comprise 1,000.
Traumazine is the rapper’s sixth charting effort on the Billboard 200. She first dented in the tally in 2019 with Tina Snow (peaking at No. 166) and has followed it with five straight top 10 efforts: Fever (No. 10, 2019), Sugar (No. 7, 2020), Good News (No. 2, 2020), Something for Thee Hotties: From Thee Archives (No. 5, 2021) and Traumazine (No. 4).
The Traumazine album was announced just one day before its release on Aug. 12. The set was preceded by a trio of Hot 100-charting hits: “Sweetest Pie,” with Dua Lipa (No. 15 peak), “Plan B” (No. 29) and “Pressurelicious,” featuring Future (No. 55). The set also boasts collaborations with Key Glock, Latto, Pooh Shiesty, Rico Nasty, Jhené Aiko, Lucky Daye, Sauce Walka, Big Pokey and Lil’ Keke.
YoungBoy Never Broke Again’s The Last Slimeto slips 2-5 in its second week with 50,000 equivalent album units earned (down 54%), Morgan Wallen’s former leader Dangerous: The Double Album dips 4-6 with 48,000 (down less than 1%) and Harry Styles’ chart-topping Harry’s House falls 5-7 with 43,000 units (down 1%).
The Weeknd’s compilation album The Highlights returns to the top 10, rising 36-8 with just over 28,000 equivalent album units earned (up 76%). The set contains such hits as “Blinding Lights,” “Save Your Tears” (both from The Weeknd’s studio album After Hours). On the new chart, the TEA and SEA units for those songs contribute to The Highlights, as a song’s activity is assigned to the artist’s album with the most traditional album sales in a week. (The Highlights sold 1,000 copies in the latest tracking week, while After Hours sold under 1,000.) A week ago, the TEA and SEA for the songs were directed to After Hours, as it outsold The Highlights that week.
Closing out the new top 10 are two former No. 1s: Future’s I Never Liked You, falling 7-9 with nearly 28,000 equivalent album units earned (down 4%) and Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour, which slides 9-10 with 25,000 units (down 1%).
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes an exhaustive and thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data, removing any suspicious or unverifiable activity using established criteria before final chart calculations are made and published. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious and unverifiable is disqualified prior to the final calculation.
