INGLEWOOD, CA – AUGUST 27: Nicki Minaj attends the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards at The Forum on … [+]
Nicki Minaj made her fans wait half a decade for a new album, and now that it’s out, they didn’t disappoint her. The rapper returns to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 this week with her latest full-length, Pink Friday 2.
In its debut tracking week, Pink Friday 2 was far and away the most popular album in America. The set opens at No. 1 on the Billboard 200—the chart company’s namesake ranking of the most-consumed full-lengths in the U.S.—with 228,000 equivalent units shifted.
That sum includes 92,000 pure sales. It also features 129,000 streaming equivalent album units, which come from the nearly 170 million plays the tunes featured on Pink Friday 2 racked up on platforms like Spotify and Apple Music as the set was released.
Pink Friday 2 marks Minaj’s third No. 1 on the Billboard 200. The title follows in the footsteps of both the original Pink Friday, which ruled in 2010, and its follow-up, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded. That set, one of several in the Pink Friday series, also peaked in first place two years after the original.
Minaj has now reached the top 10 on the Billboard 200 with seven different projects. In addition to her trio of leaders, she’s seen just as many releases miss the throne by one spot. The Pinkprint, Queen, and her mixtape Beam Me Up Scotty all peaked at No. 2. A greatest hits compilation, Queen Radio: Volume 1, rose as high as No. 10 last year.
Pink Friday 2 was previewed by a pair of singles. In summer 2022, Minaj dropped “Super Freaky Girl,” which went right to No. 1 on the Hot 100. The song marked her third trip to the summit and her first on her own. The second official single, “Last Time I Saw You,” has thus far climbed to No. 23.
