Lil Baby Lands Third No. 1 Album on Billboard 200 With ‘It’s Only Me’

Lil Baby lands his third No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart (dated Oct. 29) as It’s Only Me debuts atop the tally. The set earned 216,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Oct. 20, according to Luminate. It also claims the third-largest streaming week for an album in 2022.

Lil Baby previously topped the list with The Voice of the Heroes (a collaborative set with Lil Durk in 2021) and My Turn (2020). The latter finished 2020 as Luminate’s most popular album of that year.

It’s Only Me was announced in early September and marks the rapper’s sixth top 10, all consecutive, on the Billboard 200.

Related

Also in the top 10 of the new Billboard 200, Red Hot Chili Peppers’ second album of 2022, Return of the Dream Canteen, enters at No. 3; The 1975’s Being Funny in a Foreign Language starts at No. 7 and Bailey Zimmerman’s debut effort Leave the Light On bows at No. 9.

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Oct. 29, 2022-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Oct. 25. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.

Of It’s Only Me’s 216,000 equivalent album units earned, SEA units comprise 209,000 (equaling 288.97 million on-demand officials streams of the set’s 23 tracks — the third-largest streaming week of 2022 for an album), album sales comprise 6,500 and TEA units comprise 500.

Bad Bunny’s former No. 1 Un Verano Sin Ti is a non-mover at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with 72,000 equivalent album units earned (down 5%).

Red Hot Chili Peppers’ second album of 2022, Return of the Dream Canteen, debuts at No. 3 with 63,000 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum, album sales comprise 56,000 (it’s the top-selling album of the week, debuting at No. 1 on Top Album Sales), SEA units comprise 7,000 and TEA units comprise a negligible sum. Return of the Dream Canteen follows the band’s chart-topping Unlimited Love, which debuted atop the list dated April 16.

Notably, on the Top Album Sales chart, the Peppers have scored a pair of No. 1s in 2022 (Unlimited Love and Return of the Dream Canteen) – making it the first group with two No. 1 rock albums on the chart in less than 12 months since 2005. That year, System of a Down doubled-up at No. 1 with Mezmerize and Hypnotize. (The Peppers have logged their two 2022 No. 1s six months and two weeks apart; System of a Down notched theirs in 2005 six months and a week apart.)

Return of the Dream Canteen marks the ninth top 10-charting album for Red Hot Chili Peppers on the Billboard 200. The album was led by the single “Tippa My Tongue,” which hit No. 1 on both the Rock & Alternative Airplay and Alternative Airplay charts. On the latter, it’s the 15th No. 1 for the group, extending its record for the most No. 1s in the chart’s history.

Morgan Wallen’s chart-topping Dangerous: The Double Album is stationary at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 (45,000 equivalent album units; down 2%), The Weeknd’s The Highlights is steady at No. 5 (40,000; down less than 1%) and Beyoncé’s former No. 1 Renaissance falls 3-6 (33,000; down 56%).

The 1975 collects its fourth top 10-charting effort on the Billboard 200 as the band’s new Being Funny in a Foreign Language bows at No. 7 with 32,500 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum, album sales comprise 19,500, SEA units comprise 13,000 (equaling 16.24 million on-demand official streams of the set’s 11 tracks) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum. The album was preceded by a pair of top 20-charting singles on the Alternative Airplay chart (“Part of the Band” and “I’m in Love With You”).

Harry Styles’ chart-topping Harry’s House falls 6-8 with 32,000 equivalent album units earned (down 5%).

Bailey Zimmerman’s debut effort Leave the Light On starts at No. 9 on the Billboard 200 with 32,000 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum, SEA units comprise 27,000 (equaling 36.19 million on-demand official streams of the set’s nine tracks), album sales comprise 4,000 and TEA units comprise 1,000.

The singer-songwriter initially broke through on TikTok in 2020 and has already notched a trio of top 10-charting hits on the Hot Country Songs chart, all of which are included on Leave the Light On (“Fall in Love,” “Rock and a Hard Place” and “Where It Ends”). All three tracks have additionally reached the top 25 on the all-genre Streaming Songs chart, and the top five of the Country Streaming Songs chart (with “Rock and a Hard Place” hitting No. 1 in June).

Zach Bryan rounds out the top 10 of the new Billboard 200 as American Heartbreak falls 8-10 with 28,000 equivalent album units earned (up 1%).

Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.

Keith Caulfield

Billboard