2016 is through, and all the numbers have been tabulated. It is now clear who won last year in the music industry, as if it couldn't ...
2016 is through, and all the numbers
have been tabulated. It is now clear who won last year in the music
industry, as if it couldn't already be guessed.Drake’s Views has been revealed as the biggest album of 2016, and it wasn’t even close. The hip-hop star’s latest album moved over 4.1 million equivalent units since it was released in late April, and it is still going strong. In fact, the title is back in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 this week.
Views moved just about one-quarter of all the units it shifted throughout 2016 in its opening week, when it became one of the few albums in history to manage a million-plus opening frame. It easily topped the all-encompassing albums tally, which it would end up doing for a total of 13 nonconsecutive weeks throughout the year.
Behind Drake’s blockbuster release is Adele’s 25, which ended 2015 as the biggest title by a wide margin, just as Drake has done this time around. 25 was released in late 2015, so while it moved millions in its first few weeks, it powered through these past 12 months thanks to several hit singles and a tour that took her all around the world, earning her even more fans and selling copies of her latest masterpiece along the way.
Beyoncé’s semi-surprise visual album Lemonade is in third place, followed by Rihanna’s Anti in fourth and Twenty One Pilots’ Blurryface in fifth.
This year, every single one of the albums that placed within the top 10 managed to move at least one million copies, though the last place title, Ariana Grande’s Dangerous Woman, comes close to missing that mark. Only the top three spots moved at least two million units, while Drake’s Views was the only one to blow past even that impressive milestone.
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