Drake returned to the Number One spot on the Artists 500 after racking up a whopping 206 million song streams for the week of August 2nd through August 8th.
After Chance the Rapper surged past him last week on the strength of his new album, The Big Day, the Toronto MC bounced back thanks to his new compilation, Care Package, which collects non-album cuts released as far back as 2011. Care Package claimed the top spot on the RS Top 200 Albums chart, moving 104,600 album units, while Drake also posted 17 songs on the Top 100 Songs chart, including his recent single “Money In the Grave” (15.7 million streams) and Care Package tracks “The Motion” (9.6 million), “Trust Issues” (9.7 million) and “How About Now” (9.5 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.
Clocking in more than 100 million streams below Drake was Post Malone, who captured the Number Two spot on the Artists 500 with 70.7 million streams. The musician is gearing up for the release of his new album, the follow-up to last year’s breakout Beerbongs and Bentleys, and his recent single “Goodbyes,” featuring Young Thug, landed at Number Eight on the Top 100 Songs chart with 15.5 million streams. Coming in behind Posty were Artists 500 mainstays Billie Eilish and Chris Brown, who notched 68.2 million and 59.7 million streams respectively, while rounding out the Top Five was last week’s chart-topper, Chance the Rapper, who scored 53.5 million streams.
The biggest surge of the week belonged to Chicago rapper Lil Durk who leapt from Number 93 to Number 9 with 49.3 million streams after releasing his new album, Love Songs 4 the Streets 2. The record landed at Number Five on the RS Top 200 Albums chart moving 33,800 units, while his song, “Die Slow,” hit Number 87 on the Top 100 Songs chart wit 4.8 million streams. Tool also landed at Number 18 with 38.5 million streams after the band finally made their music available on streaming services.
Elsewhere in the Top 10, Ed Sheeran claimed the Number Six spot with 52.5 million streams, Khalid landed at Number Seven with 51.8 million, rapper NF secured Number Eight with 50.9 million and Ariana Grande held the Number 10 spot with 48.6 million streams (meanwhile, the pop star’s new collaboration with Social House, “Boyfriend,” bumped off Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” to claim the Number One Spot on the Top 100 Songs chart).