Justin Bieber’s long-awaited return yields a No. 1 debut for his new album, SWAG, on Billboard’s Top R&B Albums chart (dated July 26). The surprise album, teased only hours before its arrival on July 11, opens with 163,000 equivalent album units earned in United States for the tracking week of July 11-17, according to Luminate.
SWAG gives Bieber his second No. 1 on Top R&B Albums, which began in October 2012. It follows Changes, which reigned for three weeks in February-March 2020.
Of SWAG’s first-week total, streaming activity contributed 155,000 units, a figure equal to 198.8 million official on-demand audio and video streams of the album’s songs — Bieber’s biggest streaming week ever for an album. Just over 6,000 units are from traditional album sales, with the remaining balance (a little more than 1,000 units) deriving from track-equivalent album units. (One unit equals the following levels of consumption: one album sale, 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams for a song on the album.)
Elsewhere, SWAG enters at No. 2 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and the all-genre Billboard 200, ranking behind JACKBOYS and Travis Scott’s JACKBOYS 2 on both lists.
In addition to a No. 1 start on Top R&B Albums, Bieber also banks the No. 1 spot on the multi-metric Hot R&B Songs chart with SWAG cut “Yukon.” The track registered 15.3 million official U.S. streams and 1,000 digital sales downloads for its coronation.
“Yukon” gives Bieber his sixth No. 1 on the Hot R&B Songs chart, dating to its October 2012 launch. He first topped the list in a featured role alongside Quavo and Chance the Rapper on DJ Khaled’s “No Brainer,” a six-week champ in 2018, and followed with his own “Yummy” (four weeks, 2020), “Intentions,” featuring Quavo (two, 2020), “Peaches,” featuring Daniel Caesar and GIVĒON (10, 2021) and a supporting turn with Tems on Wizkid’s “Essence” (nine, 2021).
In all, SWAG sparks eight debuts on the Hot R&B Songs, pushing Bieber to 32 total entries on the nearly 13-year-old list. Here’s a review of his placements this week:
No. 1, “Yukon”
No. 2, “Go Baby”
No. 4, “Way It Is,” feat. Gunna
No. 7, “Devotion,” with Dijon
No. 8, “Sweet Spot,” with Sexyy Red
No. 10, “Swag,” with Cash Cobain & Eddie Benjamin
No. 12, “Too Long”
No. 15, “Zuma House”
