Kanye West Sets New Records on Artists 500 Chart
Kanye West conquered the Artists 500 with the highest weekly stream count the chart has ever seen following the arrival of his new album, Donda.
West pulled in a record-setting 410.8 million song streams, and the 269 million stream gap between him and the Number Two artist — Drake with 141.2 million song streams — is the second highest the chart has ever seen (it’s likely those two will swap positions, and a new record will be set, once Drake’s new album, Certified Lover Boy is counted on the charts next week).
West also became just the 15th artist to land at Number One on the Artists 500 Chart, the Top 200 Albums chart and the Top 100 Songs chart. Donda coasted to Number One on the RS200 with 341.6 million song streams to help it move 312,900 album-equivalent units, while “Hurricane” bowed at Number One on the RS100 with 27.6 million streams.
Top Artists
Kanye West
410.8M
Drake
141.2M
Taylor Swift
89M
Doja Cat
84.3M
Juice Wrld
77M
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 the previous Thursday.
Elsewhere on the Artists 500, Juice WRLD became just the 3rd artist in chart history to spend 50 weeks in the Top 5. And with the release of If I Can’t Love, I Want Power, Halsey earned 52.5 million song streams to land at Number 22 and re-enter the Top 50 for the first time since May 2020.
Several artists hit new RS500 peaks this week as well. Nigerian star WizKid cracked the Top 100 of the RS500 for the first time, landing at Number 96 with 20.3 million song streams thanks to the success of the new version of his 2020 song, “Essence,” featuring Justin Bieber. And Baby Keem peaked at Number 165 on the RS500 with 14.5 million streams as his new track, “Family Ties,” with Kendrick Lamar, debuted at Number Nine on the RS100.
