Drake claimed the top spot on Rolling Stone‘s inaugural Artists 500 chart, notching a whopping 109.6 million streams during the week of June 21st through June 27th. Drake ruled the ranking thanks to the success of his first two new songs of 2019, “Money in the Grave” and “Omertà,” which he dropped last month to celebrate the Toronto Raptors’ NBA championship win. “Money in the Grave,” a collaboration with Rick Ross, amassed more than 28 million streams during the tracking week, according to the analytics company Alpha Data, formerly known as BuzzAngle Music. “Omertà” picked up another 6.5 million.
The Rolling Stone Artists 500 chart ranks the most-streamed artists of the week in the United States, taking into account audio streams across an artist’s entire catalog during the tracking period. The chart does not include passive listening such as terrestrial radio or digital radio. The Artists 500 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.
Two of 2019’s most popular new artists, Billie Eilish and Lil Nas X, claimed the second and third spots on the Artists 500 chart. Eilish notched 81.4 million song streams thanks to her debut album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, and its breakout single, “Bad Guy.” And while Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” remains omnipresent, his 70.1 million streams were bolstered further by the June 21st release of his debut EP, 7. “Panini” racked up more than 28 million streams, and “Rodeo,” which incorporates a verse from the star Cardi B, pulled in another 22.5 million.
Rounding out the top 5 of the Artists 500 chart are streaming mainstays Post Malone and Khalid with 58.4 million and 56.6 million song streams respectively. Meanwhile, Juice WRLD jumped to Number Seven on the chart, thanks in part to his appearance on the new BTS collaboration “All Night.” In addition, YoungBoy Never Broke Again leapt to secure the Number Eight spot. He was buoyed by steadily performing tracks like “Slime Belief” and strong streaming growth for his single “FREEDDAWG.”
For more on Rolling Stone‘s chart initiative, read our welcome post.