Frank Ocean debuts at #1 on this week’s Billboard 200 with his anticipated new album Blonde. With 276,000 equivalent albums, 232,000 of which were traditional sales, the singer earns the third-largest opening week of 2016. The only biggest debuts on the chart this year were from Beyoncé with Lemonade and Views from Drake. Blonde was released exclusively via Apple, streaming on the Apple Music service and for sale through the iTunes Music Store (though only as a complete album, not individual tracks). However, Nielsen Music and Billboard did not count Ocean’s “visual album” Endless, which came out the day before Blonde. Endless is described by Billboardas a “long-form video,” which is only available to stream via the Apple Music service, and therefore not eligible for the Billboard 200 chart.
The aforementioned Views is at #2, followed by the soundtrack to Suicide Squad at #3. The next-highest debut this week comes from R&B artist Tony Lanez and his debut studio release I Told You. It arrives at #4 with 52,000 equivalent album units. Classical violinist/EDM musician Lindsey Stirling debuts at #5 with her new album Brave Enough.
The second half of the top ten is made up of Twenty One Pilots (#6), Adele (#7), Rihanna (#8), DJ Khaled (#9) and the Broadway cast recording of Hamilton (#10).
