Ed Sheeran enjoyed a second week at Number One on the Rolling Stone 200 this week. No.6 Collaborations Project was streamed 53 million times.
Sheeran’s only serious challenger this week was Beyoncé with The Lion King: The Gift, a companion album that accompanied the new remake of the Disney classic. The Lion King: The Gift showcases African singers like Mr. Eazi, Wizkid, and Yemi Alade; it amassed 40.2 million streams. But it debuted at Number Three behind Billie Eilish, whose When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? continues to sell and stream at an impressive clip months more than four months after its release.
The Rolling Stone Albums chart tracks the most popular albums of the week in the United States. Albums are ranked by album units, a number that combines digital and physical album sales, digital song sales, and audio streams using a custom weighting system. The chart does not include passive listening such as terrestrial radio or digital radio. The Rolling Stone 200 Albums chart is updated daily, and each week Rolling Stone finalizes and publishes an official version of the chart, covering the seven-day period ending with the previous Thursday.
Only one other new album arrived in the Top Ten: Nas’ The Lost Tapes 2. The album collects unreleased tracks from the last decade-plus of the rapper’s career. Nearly half of The Tapes 2‘s album units came from sales and downloads.
Two other new hip-hop albums arrived on the Rolling Stone 200: Dallas rapper Yella Beezy’s new mixtape Baccend Beezy debuted at Number 78, while Maxo Kream’s Brandon Banks debuted at Number 98. But week after week, listeners are content to return to the same handful of albums, a group that includes Khalid’s Free Spirit (steady at Number Six week over week), Post Malone’s Beerbongs & Bentleys (steady at Number Seven), and DaBaby’s Baby on Baby (steady at Number Eight).