Drake’s mass album drop has made music history.
The Toronto rapper is the first artist to occupy each of the top three spots on Billboard’s top 200 album chart, the company revealed Sunday.
“Iceman” landed at No. 1 with 463,000 album-equivalent units after Drake spent nearly a year teasing the project through guerrilla-style marketing stunts across Toronto. “Habibti” and “Maid of Honour,” the two surprise albums released late Thursday, debuted at Nos. 2 and 3 with roughly 114,000 and 110,000 album-equivalent units, respectively.
Equivalent album sales is a metric aimed at measuring total consumption through the physical copies that were sold, digital downloads and streaming numbers.
The albums drew tepid reviews from critics and fans, but they didn’t seem to put a dent in streaming numbers. Spotify reported that “Iceman” pulled in more than 140 million plays in the first day of its release alone, marking the second-biggest debut for a hip-hop album behind Drake’s 2021 album “Certified Lover Boy.”
Guns N’ Roses and Nelly were previously the only artists to debut albums at the top two spots on Billboard’s rankings.
Billboard also noted Monday that the achievement ties Drake with Taylor Swift for the most No. 1 albums by a solo artist.
The releases mark Drake’s first solo projects since his 2024 feud with Kendrick Lamar, a rivalry he references on several tracks.
Fans knew “Iceman” was coming after the release date was revealed by a 30-foot ice sculpture downtown, which surprised city officials and drew fans with pitchforks and blowtorches trying to unlock the secrets hidden within.
In the hours leading up to the release, the Iceman set fireworks over the waterfront and blanketed the CN Tower in ice-themed projections before revealing that he would actually release three albums at midnight.
