Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticBeyoncé’s “Renaissance” album rode in on a steed of its own to register the second-best first-week numbers so far this year.
It trails only Harry Styles’ latest, as 2022 album premieres go.The debut figure for “Renaissance” was 332,000 equivalent album units, per Luminate Data, as reported Sunday in Billboard — a tally that represents the best first week for a female artist this year.“Renaissance” came in short of supplanting Styles’ “Harry’s House” as the top-debuting album of the year; Styles’ collection bowed with 521,000 units in June.
Beyoncé’s effort topped all other 2022 contenders to date, though, the biggest of which were BTS’ “Proof,” which debuted with 314,000 units and now gets bumped to third place, and Kendrick Lamar’s “Mr.
Morale & the Big Steppers,” which stepped out with 295,000. While she doesn’t earn bragging rights for the biggest bow of the year, there’s still a chance for her to become a dominating force in year-end album stats, as she has shared plans to release two more “acts” as part of this release cycle.
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