The Weeknd is top of the US Album Charts despite low sales. Fishy.

Riddle me this: how can The xx and Run The Jewels both sell more record than The Weeknd, yet Mr Tesfaye is still at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart?

The answer, of course, is streaming. Yep, that old nugget again. As reported by The New York Times, The Weeknd’s latest album ‘Starboy’ hasn’t been selling so well (just 13,000 copies overall) but the LP’s tracks were streamed 57.2 million times in the week ending 19th January.

Now, if you went by sales alone, then six albums would’ve beaten The Weeknd to the punch. The xx’s ‘I See You’ has sold 36,000 copies, but its tracks have only been streamed 12.3 million times. Run The Jewels also sold more records, as did, er, the ‘Trolls’ soundtrack (for some reason).

All in all, The Weeknd’s continually gargantuan streaming figures means that ‘Starboy’ has now topped the US album chart four times since it was released in November. Just goes to show the power of the stream…