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Despite a tumultuous year, Drake's status as a commercial juggernaut remains unshaken. The Canadian rapper, now 38, has surpassed an astonishing 170 million equivalent album sales in his career.
The turbulent year of Drake
The year 2024 was marked by one of hip-hop’s most explosive feuds: Drake vs. Kendrick Lamar. The intense back-and-forth saw Lamar arguably take the upper hand. His track Not Like Us not only dominated the charts but also settled its place alongside legendary diss songs like 2Pac’s Hit ’Em Up and Nas’ Ether.
While the track’s success hurt Drake’s pride, the real damage came from Lamar's brutal accusations, including allegations of cultural appropriation, sexual misconduct, and hypocrisy. These claims, coupled with the earlier leak of Drake’s nude photos on social media, severely tarnished his image. Adding insult to injury, his street credibility was ridiculed for filing a lawsuit against his own label, accusing it of promoting Not Like Us to his detriment.
All this drama coincided with a notable career milestone - or lack thereof. For the first time since 2012, Drake did not release any new project in 2024, whether a studio album, mixtape, or collaboration. Fans eagerly anticipated Hometown Love, the upcoming joint project with PartyNextDoor, but it has yet to materialize.
Drake still led all rappers in sales for the year
Despite the controversies, Drake remained the top-performing rapper of the year. With 12.11 billion streams on Spotify, he ranked as the third most-streamed artist overall, trailing only two other artists embroiled in their own controversies, Kanye West (9.67 billion) and Travis Scott (8.41 billion). Aforementioned Kendrick Lamar charted at fifth with 6.91 billion streams, while Eminem secured the fourth spot with 8.12 billion.
These results may seem surprising given the swirl of controversies, but they align with Drake's status as a top-tier artist. His extensive catalog of hits is deeply embedded in millions of playlists, ensuring continued traction. These are not just songs people casually listen to - they’re staples in global streaming culture. As long as listeners still enjoy his tunes, his music’s enduring popularity will overshadow the headlines.
However, his dominance showed signs of cracking. While his peers in the top five experienced significant year-over-year growth (18%-41%), Drake's streams dropped by nearly 2 billion, from 14.03 billion in 2023 to 12.11 billion in 2024. Although still at the top, his reign was undeniably bruised.
Second rapper to surpass 170 million album sales
Drake's record-breaking performance on streaming platforms over the last decade, combined with strong pure sales in his earlier years, has propelled him into the upper echelon of the best selling artists ever.
Just yesterday, Billboard ranked him as the second-biggest artist of the 21st century, behind Taylor Swift and ahead of Eminem. Predictably, this led to sensationalist headlines proclaiming Drake as the "biggest rapper since 2000."
It’s worth noting that Billboard bases these rankings on US chart performance, not global sales. While the title "Drake is the rapper with the most U.S. chart points since 2000" may be accurate, it lacks the same clickbait appeal.
Nonetheless, Drake's global achievements are indisputable. Surpassing 170 million equivalent album sales places him ahead of legends like Bruce Springsteen, Whitney Houston, and Billy Joel. Among all artists, he ranks 21st; among solo male artists, 8th; and among rappers, 2nd - trailing only Eminem. Below is the top five of latter list.
Can Drake catch Eminem in sales?
While Drake reigned supreme in the 2010s, Eminem was the undisputed king of the 2000s. Even today, Eminem’s catalog remains a global force. In the US, Drake has overtaken Eminem in sales, but worldwide, the latter's influence remains unmatched.
The numbers reveal a daunting gap: Drake still trails Eminem by nearly 55 million equivalent album sales. That’s significant - but not insurmountable. Drake currently adds nearly 20 million sales per year, compared to Eminem's 12 million. At this pace, Drake could theoretically close the gap within seven years.
However, this projection comes with caveats. For Drake, at 38, maintaining his current performances will become increasingly difficult as age and controversy weigh on his career. By contrast, Eminem’s catalog shows remarkable stability, benefiting from a legacy bolstered by nostalgia and consistent appeal across generations.
This is where Drake’s feud with Kendrick Lamar could leave a lasting mark. The conflict adds immense pressure to Drake’s next release, which will serve as both a musical statement and a test of his resilience. If initial numbers fall short, media backlash could snowball, damaging his long-term standing and curbing his ability to stay in the top tier of global sellers.
What’s next for Drake?
Even if catching Eminem proves elusive, Drake is on track to break the monumental 200 million sales barrier within a couple of years. This would further solidify his place in music history, elevating him among the industry’s most elite.
Drake also has a strong chance of entering the all-time top 10 best-selling artists. Frank Sinatra, currently ranked 8th with 234 million sales, faces stiff competition in the coming years. Taylor Swift, Eminem, and eventually Drake are all poised to surpass him, reshaping the rankings of music’s greatest legends.
For now, though, Drake remains a formidable force. His catalog’s enduring popularity and his ability to weather storms - whether personal or professional - ensure that he’ll stay relevant in an ever-changing landscape. The next chapter of his career will be a pivotal moment for the Canadian superstar.
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very poor album sales
zero albums over +20M EAS
2 global hits at best
90 oficial singles released
his career stats are not that impressive seeing the bigger picture, even in the biggest market there's not a diamond album so far.
This doesn't make sense. You speak about looking at "the bigger picture", yet to prove your point you purposedly focus on minor and unrepresentative statistics. Both Thank Me Later and Take Care made the top US annual chart based on pure sales back in the day. Drake was one of the rare artists with Taylor Swift able to shift 500k+ sales on debut weeks. He understood the move to streaming earlier than others, and axed his promotion that way (One Dance's unavailability on YT to push Spotify, More Life promoted as a "playlist", etc). If that market had remained a sales market, he would dominate just as well.
Both Views and Scorpion are going to be Diamond albums in the near future. They will also clearly reach 20m EAS. That is despite his large discography which reduces their recurrent streams a lot. He has no less than 14 albums at 3m+ each. And with songs like One Dance, God's Plan, Hotline Bling, In My Feelings, I don't see how you can count two glonbal hits "at best". He has 20 tracks at 1b+ streams.
There are many things which can be said about Drake, but downplaying his success will automatically discredit you. No matter how we look at it he is the 2nd biggest artist of the last 20 years.
His best seller "Take Care" moved 2.5 million pure copies in the US, I think it's a very weak amount for the supposed 2nd biggest artist of the century.
Billboard Year-End Chart
2012 - #3
2013 - #192
2014 - OUT
2015 - 102
2016 - 58
So it did re-enter cause Billboard started with streaming and it'll reach diamond cause of his fan base listening every week, that’s not even close to that with GP support.
"Views" and "Scorpion" would dominate in pure sales in the first year but they wouldn't have any longevity after the promo cycle like "Take Care".
Hotline and IMF have terrible recurrent streams, those songs are not that big deal outside of anglosphere. I don’t see how +1B streamed song can be called "global hit" actually, for example no one knows "Last Night" by Morgan Wallen all over the world, many songs take years to reach that mark and nowadays non-singles get there as well.
When you flood the market with songs every three months, almost one hundred singles released, countless feats with others hip hop artists and a huge fan base in the biggest market worldwide listening every week counting for EAS so it's normal to seem to be big in this era.
These "ifs" are just speculative guesses, highly uneducated ones too. You are just talking nonsense out of both bias and ignorance at this point. You are also terribly inconsistent. For instance, you claim he’s "strong because he floods the market," yet argue that HB or IMF have "terrible recurrent streams" without factoring in competition from his own catalog. Same when you say if can't sell he can only get streams, while he doesn't sell because he has heavy streams.
Your example to suggest he can’t sell pure albums is one of the weakest you could’ve chosen. Without streams, you claim Take Care wouldn’t return to the charts... yet it spent months in the top 50 pure album sales chart in 2024!
And all artists have stronger and weaker markets, that doesn't prove a thing.
Drake may have been the biggest rapper of the year overall, but I’d be interested to know what his numbers looked like before and after the beef. Also worth noting that he released an EP (100 GIGS), which massively underperformed compared to his previous EPs. I wouldn’t be surprised if his next album does poorly (especially if it’s another bloated 30 song slogfest with only three good songs like he’s been making for almost a decade now).
If you flood the streaming platforms with songs especially singles releases frequently you're feeding their algorithms and it's very likely that it will appear to people who don't even listen to you with "discovery mode" and "autoplay" so the numbers can be inflated.
HB and IMF have that competition from his own catalog so why his global hits OD and Gods Plan are so far ahead in daily streams?
top 50 pure album sales chart in 2024 gives 1k weekly, it's not that relevant. If the album was really big with GP it wouldn't be outside of BB200 YEC two years after release.
The album is not even halfway to diamond with TEA included so it seems the streaming era inflate the real sucess of many artists, "Take Care" case is just one big example.
