Drake, Beyoncé & Kendrick Lamar Among Artists With Highest First-Week Sales Of 2022

Drake, Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar have been commercial titans in the music industry for over a decade and they don’t appear to be slowing down in the album sales category anytime soon.

According to Chart Data, Drizzy, Queen Bey and K. Dot hold three of the top six slots when it came to first-week album sales numbers in 2022.

Behind monstrous first weeks from Taylor Swift and multi-hyphenate star Harry Styles, Drake and 21 Savage’s Her Loss posted the third-largest figure with 404,000 total album unit sales.

Beyoncé isn’t far behind with Renaissance raking in 332,000 album-equivalent units and SZA’s SOS makes a late entry to the contest with 318,000 units in the first week to round out the Top 5.

Biggest US album debuts of 2022:
#1 Midnights, @taylorswift13 1.578M
#2 Harry’s House, @Harry_Styles 522K
#3 Her Loss, @Drake @21Savage 404K
#4 RENAISSANCE, @Beyonce 332K
#5 SOS, @SZA 318K
#6 PROOF, @BTS_twt 314K
#7 Mr. Morale the Big Steppers, @kendricklamar 296K

— chart data (@chartdata) December 20, 2022

Kendrick’s comeback album, Mr. Morale The Big Steppers, arrived in May to end the TDE rapper’s drought as fans welcomed his first solo LP in five years. He ended up earning the seventh most first-week sales notching just shy of 300,000 with a first week of 296,000 units.

The Compton rap god wrapped up his Big Steppers Tour in New Zealand over the weekend after performing 76 shows in 16 countries spanning three different continents. Kendrick finished off the tour and promised fans he’d be back.

“With that being said, from the bottom of our hearts, we love y’all and we will be back,” K. Dot stated, which drew a roar from the thousands of fans filling in the venue.

Kendrick also snagged eight 2023 Grammy Award nominations for his latest album. He’s picked up nominations for Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Music Video for “The Heart Part 5,” along with Best Rap Album, Best Rap Song, Best Rap Performance, and Best Melodic Rap Performance.

While Drake has shunned the Grammys, Beyoncé led all artists with another nine nominations at the 2023 award show, bringing her total to a robust 88 noms. Bey’s 28 Grammy wins give her the most of any woman artist ever.

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