Canadian R&B artist Drake continued his reign atop the weekly U.S. Billboard 200 album chart for a fifth consecutive week on the strength of streaming activity.
The artist is holding off country singer Dierks Bentley and R&B singer Beyoncé.
Drake’s “Views’’ sold 152,000 units for the week ending June 2, comprising album and song sales and 137 million streams, according to figures from Nielsen Sound Scan.
The Billboard 200 album chart tallies units from album sales, song sold (10 songs equal one album) and streaming activity (1,500 streams equal one album).
Drake’s fourth studio album had been topping the Billboard 200 chart on the strength of streaming activity on platforms such as spotify and Apple Inc’s Apple Music.
It had soared past 100 million streams each week since its release.
Bentley’s latest album, “Black’’ debuted at No. 2 with 101,000 units sold, including five million streams.
Beyoncé’s “Lemonade’’ album climbed one spot to No. 3 with 79,000 units sold including nearly 9 million streams.
Other new entries in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 chart included pop group Fifth Harmony at No. 4 with “7/27’’, and electronic dance music producer Flume’s “Skin’’ at No. 8.
On the Digital Songs chart which measured online single sales, Justin Timberlake’s upbeat “Can’t Stop the Feeling’’ held the top spot for the third week running, with 155,000 copies sold out. (Reuters/NAN)