Drake’s Scorpion breaks global streaming records

Vaughn Highfield July 9, 2018

A new Drake album wouldn’t be a Drake album if it didn’t set some records and it appears that Scorpion is doing just that. Not only did it smash the single-day streaming record on both Apple Music and Spotify on the day of release, but it’s now the first album to surpass the 1 billion streams worldwide in a week mark.

Drake’s Scorpion breaks global streaming records

The news comes from Billboard who, thanks to industry sources, discovered that Drake’s album had smashed global streaming records across all services. Prior to Scorpion tearing through the 1 billion mark, the record previously belonged to Post Malone’s Beerbongs & Bentleys, which only managed around 700 million streams globally – a mark Drake’s album did in the US alone. Post Malone only managed a mere 413.3 million US streams, a number Scorpion smashed through in three days.

Unsurprisingly, this record means that Scorpion is easily set to be the biggest release of 2018 so far, lending credence to the importance of streaming services in music sales.

It’s arguable that Drake certainly had assistance in smashing these records due to heavy promotional campaigns on both Spotify and Apple Music, but it’s case in point for how influential these services are. People place trust in them for music discovery and, it’s clear, they deliver.

In fact, I’ve become a Drake convert thanks to Scorpion. Previously I’d be the sort to dodge the never-ending streams of “Hotline Bling” and Twitter chatter of Drake’s brilliance. Now though, I’m sold, and it wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for Spotify aggressively pushing the album in my face all of last week.

Now, thanks to this exposure at the hands of Spotify, I know why the Champagne Papi is consistently breaking the internet. And, the truth is, I’m totally here for it.