Kendrick Lamar’s ‘GNX’ Debuts at No. 1 on Billboard 200 Chart

Kendrick Lamar’s shock album GNX debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart (dated Dec. 7), marking his fifth chart-topper, all earned consecutively. It launches with 319,000 equal album items earned within the U.S. within the week ending Nov. 28, based on Luminate — the 12 months’s sixth-largest debut body. The set’s opening week was largely pushed by streaming exercise, and the 12-song effort launches with 2024’s third-biggest streaming week for any album. GNX arrived with no warning on Nov. 22 round midday ET.

Also within the high 10 of the most recent Billboard 200, the Wicked movie soundtrack enters at No. 2, notching the very best debut for a big-screen adaptation of a stage musical ever. The new Wicked movie, starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, relies on the long-running stage musical of the identical title, which has performed on Broadway in New York since 2003.

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the preferred albums of the week within the U.S. primarily based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equal album items, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album gross sales, monitor equal albums (TEA) and streaming equal albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 particular person tracks bought from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Dec. 7, 2024-dated chart can be posted in full on Billboard‘s web site on Tuesday (Dec. 3). For all chart information, comply with @billboard and @billboardcharts on each X, previously often known as Twitter, and Instagram.

Of GNX’s 319,000 first-week equal album items, SEA items comprise 285,000 (equaling 379.72 million on-demand official streams of the set’s 12 songs; it debuts at No. 1 on Top Streaming Albums), album gross sales comprise 32,000 (it was solely accessible as a extensively accessible commonplace digital obtain, in each a clear and express version; it debuts at No. 2 on Top Album Sales), and TEA items comprise 2,000.

GNX scores 2024’s sixth-largest opening week, by equal album items, amongst all albums. Further, with 379.72 million on-demand official streams generated by its songs, the album yields the 12 months’s largest streaming week for any R&B/hip-hop album. Further, amongst all albums, it logs the 12 months’s second-biggest debut streaming week, and the 12 months’s third-largest streaming week general. (The 12 months’s two larger streaming weeks had been the primary and second weeks of Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department, with 891.37 and 428.54 million, respectively.)

Lamar beforehand led the Billboard 200 with Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers (2022), DAMN. (2017), Untitled Unmastered (2016) and To Pimp a Butterfly (2015). Earlier in 2024, he nabbed a pair of No. 1s on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart along with his solo minimize “Not Like Us” (in May), shortly after he led the listing with the co-billed collaboration “Like That” (in April) with Future and Metro Boomin. Neither music is included on GNX.

GNX precedes Lamar headlining flip on the upcoming Super Bowl halftime present on Feb. 9, 2025, in New Orleans. He was introduced because the star act of the festivities on Sept. 8. It will mark his second look on the halftime present, following the all-star 2022 hip-hop showcase with Dr. Dre on the helm.

The Wicked movie soundtrack takes a bow at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, the very best debut ever by a big-screen adaptation of a stage musical.

The final time a stage-to-screen musical soundtrack debuted within the high 5 was when Chicago danced in at No. 4 — over 21 years in the past, on the Feb. 1, 2003 chart — on its option to a No. 2 peak every week later. Setting apart debut ranks, the final stage-to-screen film musical soundtrack to succeed in the highest two was Les Miserables, which spent every week at No. 1 on the Jan. 19, 2013-dated chart. (It debuted at No. 33, after which moved to No. 2 and No. 1 in its second and third weeks.)

Among all soundtracks in 2024, Wicked is the second soundtrack to succeed in the highest 10 for the primary time this 12 months, and the very best charting, following Twisters (No. 7 peak) in August.

Wicked launches with 139,000 equal album items earned within the week ending Nov. 28 — the most important week for a full-length theatrical movie soundtrack since Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s A Star Is Born earned 143,000 items in its second week (Oct. 17, 2018, chart; down from its 162,000 bow). Wicked additionally logs the most important week for any stage-to-screen musical soundtrack because the Billboard 200 started rating titles by equal album items in December 2014.

Of Wicked’s opening-week sum, album gross sales comprise 85,000 (it’s No. 1 on Top Album Sales, SEA items comprise 52,000 (equaling 67.66 million on-demand official streams of the album’s tracks; it’s No. 4 on Top Streaming Albums) and TEA items comprise 2,000. With 67.66 million streams generated by its songs, Wicked has 2024’s largest streaming week for any soundtrack, and the biggest streaming week ever for a stage-to-screen musical movie soundtrack.

Wicked’s first-week album gross sales rating the biggest gross sales week for a full-length theatrical movie soundtrack since A Star Is Born’s second week (86,000). Wicked has the biggest debut gross sales week for a stage-to-screen musical movie since Dreamgirls opened with 92,000 (Dec. 23, 2006 chart). The final time a stage-to-screen musical movie soundtrack bought greater than Wicked this previous week was when Les Miserables reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 93,000 in its third chart week (Jan. 19, 2013, chart).

Wicked’s opening week gross sales had been bolstered by its availability throughout six vinyl variants (together with a signed version, autographed by Erivo and Grande), 4 CD variants (together with a signed version) and an ordinary digital obtain album.

Sabrina Carpenter‘s chart-topping Short n’ Sweet rises 5-3 on the Billboard 200 (69,000 equal album items; down 4%); Tyler, The Creator’s former No. 1 CHROMAKOPIA falls 3-4 (61,000; down 24%) and Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft rounds out the highest 5, rising 9-5 with 50,000 (up 2%).

Gracie Abrams’ The Secret of Us steps 8-6 (48,000 equal album items; down 5%); Rauw Alejandro’s Cosa Nuestra falls 6-7 (44,000; down 35% in its second week); Swift’s former chief The Tortured Poets Department climbs 11-8 (43,000; up 1%); Morgan Wallen’s chart-topping One Thing at a Time ascends 12-9 (42,000; up 2%); and Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess is a non-mover at No. 10 (42,000; down 2%).

Luminate, the unbiased information supplier to the Billboard charts, completes an intensive overview of all information submissions utilized in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate critiques and authenticates information. In partnership with Billboard, information deemed suspicious or unverifiable is eliminated, utilizing established standards, earlier than remaining chart calculations are made and revealed.