Lemonade has been on the tip of everyone’s tongues this week and it looks like the payoff will be super sweet for Beyonce. After releasing the album last Saturday following her HBO special, the estimated first week sales totals for the project are officially in and it looks like Queen Bey will welcome her sixth number one album with major figures. Via consistently accurate Hits Daily Double:
Beyoncé has topped the HITS Album Sales Chart with around 501k for Lemonade. On the Sales Plus Streaming (SPS) Chart, she snagged an additional 163k, bringing that grand total to 664k. And if you break the SPS number down, it’s approximately 92k TEA (with huge single sales) and 76k SEA.
In an interesting exclusivity tactic, Lemonade was only made available for streaming onTidal. Those unfamiliar with Tidal, or Spotify/Apple Music users unwilling to add another subscription to their bills, were then left with buying the set as their only option. So although fans had the option to stream, her sales were not affected. It’s also worth noting that Bey, being her typical atypical self, opted against a traditional rollout/set-up, deciding not to preface the release with a single and to drop everything at once, following her HBO special, which is bundled with the album at $17.99.
Billboard has also confirmed that the album will top the charts pushing past the 500k mark.
Beyonce’s Lemonade will loom large on the next Billboard 200 albums chart. Industry forecasters now suggest the set could debut at No. 1 on the May 14-dated list with more than 500,000 copies sold and more than 700,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending April 28. (On April 27, sources saidLemonade was on track to sell possibly 450,000, with its equivalent unit total at 550,000 or more.)
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week based onmulti-metric consumption, which includes traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). The top 10 of the new May 14-dated Billboard 200 chart — and Lemonade’s official sales figure and unit total compiled by Nielsen Music — is scheduled to be revealed on Billboard’s websites on Sunday, May 1. (The May 14 Billboard 200 chart reflects data tracked in the week ending April 28.)
