Kanye West’s ‘Donda’ Sets Apple Music Record By Reaching No. 1 In 152 Countries

Kanye West continues to surpass commerical milestones with his latest LP Donda. After multiple teased release dates going back to July, the project was finally made available for worldwide listeners on August 29.

There was noticeable global interest in Donda from the moment the LP arrived on streaming platforms. Specifically, Apple Music users around the planet reportedly played the project in high numbers.

According to Apple, Kanye West’s 10th studio album set a new record by reaching #1 on Apple Music’s Top Albums chart in 152 countries in 24 hours. The LP also broke Apple Music’s 2021 record for the most-streamed album in a day.

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#Donda is 🔥

You can FINALLY listen to new @kanyewest on loop. It’s up now: https://t.co/w5603YCTUj https://t.co/lnAKdSo5bq

6:30 PM · Aug 29, 2021

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Donda was streamed more than 60 million times on Apple Music in the United States alone. It now holds the distinction of being the third-most played album on its first day of release in Apple Music history. Plus, Donda tracks occupied 19 of the top 20 spots on Apple Music’s Daily Top 100 Global songs chart.

Kanye West’s Donda was breaking the internet before the album even came out. The Atlanta-born, Chicago-raised megastar set Apple Music viewership records with his pre-release listening events inside Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium and Chicago’s Soldier Field.

5.4 million Apple Music users purportedly watched the second Donda presentation from Mercedes-Benz Stadium on August 5. Those figures were surpassed when a reported 5.9 million people watched the “Kanye West Presents: The Donda Album Experience” show from Soldier Field on August 26.

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Donda is currently projected to rack up 300,000 first-week units in the United States. It should easily secure the #1 position on the next Billboard 200 album chart despite only having five days of availability in the tracking week.

2019’s Jesus Is King opened at #1 with 264,000 album-equivalent units. A year earlier, Ye amassed 208,000 units in its first seven days. Kanye West has not moved more than 300,000 first-week units since 2013’s Yeezus launched with 327,000 copies sold.

While Donda appears to be set for considerable commercial success, Kanye West’s latest musical offering has not been well-received by a large section of the public. The G.O.O.D. Music/Def Jam Recordings release currently has a 53/100 critic score on Metacritic which signifies “mixed or average reviews.” Donda‘s fan-generated Metacritic User Score sits at just 6.1/10.