Future debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 this week with his new album "The Real Me," earning 131,000 equivalent album units in its first week, according to Variety.
The debut is his 12th No. 1 on the chart and moves him past Eminem, with whom he had been tied at 11. Future now holds fifth place by himself on the all-time list of artists with the most chart-topping albums. The four ahead of him are the Beatles with 19, Drake and Taylor Swift tied at 15 each, and Jay-Z with 14.
The album's performance was driven almost entirely by streaming. "The Real Me" sold only 13,000 copies but generated 120.29 million on-demand streams, translating into 118,000 streaming equivalent album units.
Olivia Rodrigo's "You Look Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love" held at No. 2 in its fifth week with 96,000 units. Morgan Wallen's "I'm the Problem" sits at No. 3.
Two other albums debuted in the top 10. The Rolling Stones' "Foreign Tongues" entered at No. 7 with 53,000 equivalent album units. The Stones' numbers broke down in the opposite direction from Future's, with 48,500 albums sold and only 4.48 million on-demand streams. The soundtrack for the television series "Heated Rivalry" debuted at No. 9 with 41,000 units, all of it from physical sales on CD and vinyl. The score had already been released digitally in January but had not generated enough streaming activity to affect the chart before the July physical release.
Variety noted that the "Heated Rivalry" soundtrack's top 10 debut marked the first time a TV soundtrack had entered the top 10 in more than a decade, since the "Empire" soundtrack did it in 2015. One other TV soundtrack, for "Hazbin Hotel," reached the top 10 last year, but only after debuting at No. 70.
Madonna's "Confessions II," which debuted at No. 1 last week, dropped out of the top 10 in its second week. Its exact chart position was not yet available as of Sunday.
Meanwhile, Morgan Wallen's "I'm the Problem" logged its 45th nonconsecutive week at No. 1 on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart, dated July 25, bringing his total weeks at the top of that chart to 231, according to Billboard. That extends his lead as the artist with the most weeks at No. 1 in the chart's 62-year history. Wallen first topped the chart on August 15, 2020. Before returning to No. 1 this week, "I'm the Problem" had spent 13 consecutive weeks at No. 2 behind Ella Langley's "Dandelion."
