First Week and Total Album Sales in the past year [Reference Post]
Hey guys, so now that the 2015 year is over, I'll be starting all over for 2016.
So this is just a reference post so that all the information is in one easy place to find. That way when someone asks for the sales of the past year, I can just link them this. Doesn't really matter if this post is upvoted or not. If you guys want you can discuss the sales of the past year in the comments.
LAST UPDATE: 1/28/16
^time ^frame ^of ^this ^list ^is ^from ^December ^1st, ^2014 ^- ^December ^31st, ^2015.
| Artist | Album | First Week Sales | Release Date (m/d/y) | Total Sales | Certification (US) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drake | If You're Reading This It's Too Late | 495k | 02/13/15 | 1,153,000 | Platinum |
| J. Cole | 2014 Forest Hills Drive | 354k | 12/09/14 | 1,114,000 | Platinum |
| Drake & Future | What A Time To Be Alive | 334k | 09/20/15 | 519k | Gold |
| The Weeknd | Beauty Behind the Madness | 325k | 08/28/15 | 902k | Gold |
| Kendrick | To Pimp A Butterfly | 324k | 03/15/15 | 799k | Gold |
| Dr. Dre | Compton | 278k | 08/07/15 | 499k | Gold (Shipped) |
| Meek Mill | Dreams Worth More Than Money | 214k | 06/29/15 | 364k | - |
| Nicki Minaj | The Pinkprint | 194k | 12/12/14 | 720k | Gold |
| Big Sean | Dark Sky Paradise | 139k | 02/24/15 | 352k | - |
| Future | Dirty Sprite 2 | 126k | 09/17/15 | 350k | - |
| Logic | The Incredible True Story | 118k | 11/13/15 | 185k | - |
| ASAP Rocky | At. Long. Last. ASAP | 116k | 05/26/15 | 251k | - |
| Jeezy | Church In The Streets | 98k | 11/13/15 | 150k | - |
| G-Eazy | When It's Dark Out | 94k | 12/04/15 | 181k | - |
| Wale | The Album About Nothing | 88k | 03/31/15 | 186k | - |
| The Game | The Documentary 2/2.5 | 83k/42k | 10/09/15 | 183k/156k | - |
| Fetty Wap | Fetty Wap | 75k | 09/25/15 | 269k | - |
| Mac Miller | GO:OD AM | 73k | 09/18/15 | 101k | - |
| Fabolous | The Young OG Project | 71k | 12/25/14 | 163k | - |
| Travis Scott | Rodeo | 70k | 09/04/15 | 137k | - |
| Ludacris | Ludaversal | 62k | 03/31/15 | 130k | - |
| Boosie | Touch Down 2 Cause Hell | 59k | 05/26/15 | 125k | - |
| Tech N9ne | Special Effects | 58k | 05/04/15 | 115k | - |
| Joey Badass | B4.DA.$$ | 54k | 01/19/15 | 122k | - |
| Yelawolf | Love Story | 51k | 04/21/15 | 128k | - |
| Chris Bown & Tyga | Fan of a Fan | 51k | 02/20/15 | 124k | - |
| Jadakiss | Top 5 Dead Or Alive | 51k | 11/20/15 | 75k | - |
| Tyler, the Creator | Cherry Bomb | 51k | 04/13/15 | 74k | - |
| Rick Ross | Black Market | 50k | 12/04/15 | 91k | - |
| Machine Gun Kelly | General Admission | 47k | 10/16/15 | 56k | - |
| Action Bronson | Mr. Wonderful | 44k | 03/23/15 | ? | - |
| Miguel | Wildheart | 41k | 06/29/15 | ? | - |
| Lupe Fiasco | Tetsuo & Youth | 39k | 01/20/15 | 79k | - |
| Pusha T | Darkest Before Dawn | 38k | 12/18/15 | ? | - |
| Rae Sremmurd | SremmLife | 34k | 01/06/15 | 189k | - |
| Kid Ink | Full Speed | 28k | 01/30/15 | 54k | - |
| Snoop Dogg | Bush | 27k | 05/08/15 | 42k | - |
| Earl | IDLSIDGO | 27k | 03/23/15 | ? | - |
| Lil Durk | Remember My Name | 24k | 06/02/15 | ? | - |
| Bryson Tiller | T R A P S O U L | 22k | 09/25/15 | 169k | - |
| Scarface | Deeply Rooted | 22k | 09/04/15 | ? | - |
| Ty Dolla Sign | Free TC | 21k | 11/13/15 | ? | - |
| DJ Khaled | I Changed A Lot | 19k | 10/23/15 | ? | - |
| Young Thug | Barter 6 | 17k | 04/16/15 | 24k | - |
| Curren$y | Canal Street Confidential | 17k | 12/04/15 | ? | - |
| Jay Rock | 90059 | 16k | 09/11/15 | 21k | - |
| T.I. | Da Nic | 15k | 09/11/15 | ? | - |
| Migos | YRN | 15k | 07/31/15 | ? | - |
| PRhyme | PRhyme | 14k | 12/09/14 | 18k | - |
| Hopsin | Pound Syndrome | 14k | 07/24/15 | 17k | - |
| Kid Cudi | Speeding Bullet 2 Heaven | 14k | 12/04/15 | ? | - |
| Vince Staples | Summertime '06 | 14k | 06/30/15 | ? | - |
| Joe Budden | All Love Lost | 14k | 10/16/15 | ? | - |
| Jeremih | Late Nights | 11k | 12/04/15 | ? | - |
^The ^"Total ^Sales" ^row ^could ^be ^+ ^or ^- ^~7k ^off ^for ^some ^albums ^but ^for ^the ^most ^part ^it ^is ^accurate.
Some frequent Q&A
-
What is the time frame for this list?
-
December 1st, 2014 - December 31st, 2015.
-
Are the numbers pure sales or sales + stream and why?
-
The numbers are pure sales. The reason I chose pure sales is because RIAA only gives gold/platinum album plaques for pure sales numbers, not sales + stream. When, and if, RIAA changes to give album certifications based on sales + streams, I'll update my list to include sales + stream numbers.
-
Didn't Tyga sell 2k first week? And he is in your timeline from December 2014 - December 31, 2015. Why isn't he on your list?
-
To make the list you have to sell at least 10k first week. I did this because the list would get too long if I include irrelevant artists... and I feel like 10k first week isn't too much to ask for.
-
What do the "Certifications (US)" mean?
-
500,000+ total albums sold is Gold. 1,00,000+ total albums sold is Platinum.
Top 5 First Week Sales
| Artist | Album | First Week Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Drake | If You're Reading This It's Too Late | 495k |
| J. Cole | 2014 Forest Hills Drive | 354k |
| Drake & Future | What A Time To Be Alive | 334k |
| The Weeknd | Beauty Behind the Madness | 325k |
| Kendrick | To Pimp A Butterfly | 324k |
Top 5 Total Sales
| Artist | Album | Total Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Drake | If You're Reading This It's Too Late | 1,153,000 |
| J. Cole | 2014 Forest Hills Drive | 1,114,000 |
| The Weeknd | Beauty Behind the Madness | 902k |
| Kendrick | To Pimp A Butterfly | 799k |
| Nicki Minaj | The Pinkprint | 720k |
Fun Facts
-
Drake's IYRTITL sold 495k in 3 days
-
If you exclude the first week, J. Cole's FHD overall sold the most out of everyone.
-
Only 6 Hip-Hop albums went gold this year. Drake's IYRTITL, J. Cole's FHD, Weeknd's BBTM, Kendrick's TPAB, Dr. Dre's Compton, and Nicki's Pinkprint
-
Only 2 Hip-Hop albums went platinum this year. Drake's IYRTITL and J. Cole's FHD.
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Rae Sremmurd's SremmLife sold 34k first week but ended up selling 164k total. Similarly, Bryson Tiller's T R A P S O U L sold 22k first week and has sold 120k total.
I will try to add more later. If you see some cool statistic, comment it and I'll add it.
Posted Dec 27, 2015, 11:09 PM UTC · edited