Travis Scott’s ‘Utopia’ tops Billboard 200 for third straight week
Scott's new album matches the success of its predecessor, "Astroworld," which also spent three weeks at No. 1.
Travis Scott’s new album, “Utopia,” is still going strong. The album is No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart for the third consecutive week.
Last week, “Utopia” earned 185,000 equivalent album units, a 26 percent increase from the previous week. After debuting at the top slot three weeks ago, “Utopia” has spent more weeks at the Billboard 200 peak than any rap album since Drake’s “Certified Lover Boy” spent five total weeks at number one in 2021.
The unit increase is due to Scott’s providing a promotional discount on physical copies of “Utopia” on his website. Vinyl versions of “Utopia,” usually sold for $50, were available for $5 for a limited time. As a result, the vinyl LP copies accounted for 93,000 of the 99,000 ” Utopia ” albums sold last week, a 169 percent increase from the week prior. On the other hand, streaming equivalent album (SEA) units decreased by 22 percent, with 86,000 equivalent units the week before.
“Utopia” has matched the chart success of Scott’s previous album, “Astroworld,” which spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart in 2018.
The success of “Utopia” comes despite the fact that a police report on the investigation into the tragedy at Scott’s Astroworld festival performance in 2021 was released around the same time as the album, according to The New York Post. Scott’s lawyer, Kent Schaffer, accused the Houston Police Department of delaying the report last month to harm sales of “Utopia.”
The 1,266-page report details the results of an 18-month investigation of the 2021 Astroworld festival, at which 10 people died from a crowd surge during Scott’s headlining set. While the rapper was sued by several parties after the tragedy, a grand jury decided last month not to indict Scott on any criminal charges in the deaths.
Houston police called the timing of the report a “coincidence.”
“Utopia” features several guest artists, including Beyoncé, Drake, The Weeknd, 21 Savage, Kid Cudi, SZA, Future, Playboi Carti, Westside Gunn and Bad Bunny.
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