Christmas comes early for SZA.
The singer earns her first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 with SOS, which debuts atop the chart with 318,000 equivalent album units in the week ending Dec. 15.
The 23-track set, which features Travis Scott, Don Toliver, and Ol’ Dirty Bastard, becomes the fifth-largest debut of the year following Taylor Swift’s Midnights (1.578 million), Harry Styles’ Harry’s House (521,000), Drake and 21 Savage’s Her Loss (404,000), and Beyoncé’s Renaissance (332,000).
With 404.58 million official on-demand streams, SOS is the biggest streaming week ever for an R&B album, the second-largest streaming week ever for an album by a female artist, and the third-largest streaming week of 2022 for any album after Midnights (250.23 million) and Her Loss (513.56 million).
Two songs off the album debut in the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, “Kill Bill” at No. 3 and “Nobody Gets Me” at No. 10.
SOS arrives more than five years after SZA’s breakout album Ctrl, which debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 with 60,000 units. It went on to move 3.9 million equivalent album units and has remained on the chart after 288 consecutive weeks.
A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie also returns to the top 10 with Me vs. Myself, which opens at No. 6 with 53,000 equivalent album units, his fourth top 10 album.
Elsewhere, Metro Boomin’s Heroes & Villains falls 1-3 (102,000) in its second week, while Her Loss slides 3-4 (67,000).
Billboard 200 Top 10
1. SZA – SOS – 318,000
2. Taylor Swift – Midnights – 139,000
3. Metro Boomin – Heroes & Villains – 102,000
4. Drake and 21 Savage – Her Loss – 67,000
5. Michael Bublé – Christmas – 62,000
6. A Boogie Wit da Hoodie – Me vs. Myself – 53,000
7. Bad Bunny – Un Verano Sin Ti – 51,000
8. Nat King Cole – The Christmas Song – 47,000
9. Vince Guaraldi Trio – A Charlie Brown Christmas – 47,000
10. Morgan Wallen – Dangerous: The Double Album – 45,000