Although The Weeknd indicated before his Dawn FM release that he was not concerned about his album sales, his numbers have still been staggering. The album was released on Jan. 7, the first week of the year, and has been the driving force behind the incredible milestone Abel just reached recently.
On Jan. 15, The Weeknd surpassed 500 million streams in 2022 alone on Spotify. He was the first artist to pass this number this year, mostly due to Dawn FM. The project debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart this week with 154k equivalent album sales. The Weeknd shortened the timeline for Dawn FM‘s release to get it out sooner, which meant there were not any physical copies sold in its first week. So, all the album sales came from streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music.
The seven days after Dawn FM‘s release garnered The Weeknd 426 million streams on Spotify, which is the bulk of the numbers that led to him achieving 500 million streams so soon into 2022.
The only other major album releases so far this year have come from Gunna (Jan. 7), Cordae (Jan. 14) and FKA Twigs (Jan. 14), as The Weeknd is surely the most popular artist of this group.
Along with the songs on Dawn FM, The Weeknd’s previous After Hours album from early 2020 contained songs that have staying power such as hits “Blinding Lights” and “Heartless.” So, it is no surprise that Abel has been a streaming giant early on in the new year.