Before Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift and Adele make themselves known on the Billboard album chart, there is still Drake.
In the absence of much competition, the rapper’s latest album, “Certified Lover Boy,” logged its fifth nonconsecutive week at No. 1 with the equivalent of 74,000 sales in the United States, including 100 million streams and fewer than 1,000 copies sold as a complete package in its eighth week out, according to MRC Data.
But major releases loom this fall as formidable challengers: Sheeran’s new album, “=,” pronounced “equals,” was released on Friday and will make its chart debut next week, while Swift’s rerecorded version of “Red,” from 2012 — now called “Red (Taylor’s Version)” — is due out Nov. 12.
Yet even those top-selling singer-songwriters should enjoy their likely spots at No. 1 while they last, as the new album from Adele, “30,” is scheduled for release on Nov. 19, and is shaping up to be another blockbuster.
Drake’s five weeks at the top of the Billboard 200 so far this year with “Certified Lover Boy” match the stay of his previous album, “Scorpion,” in 2018, according to Billboard. And it ties his second-longest reign for a release, trailing the 13 weeks at No. 1 for his 2016 album, “Views.”
“Certified Lover Boy” is followed on this week’s chart by some of the year’s most consistently popular releases, including “Dangerous: The Double Album” by Morgan Wallen at No. 2; “Planet Her” by Doja Cat at No. 3; “Sincerely, Kentrell” by YoungBoy Never Broke Again at No. 4; and “Sour” by Olivia Rodrigo at No. 5.
New albums by Lana Del Rey (“Blue Banisters,” No. 8) and Elton John (the collaborative “The Lockdown Sessions,” No. 10) were the top debuts of the week.
