Drake breaks Billboard records with Views

Drake has set a slew of new records after debuting Views at the top of the album chart.

The rapper scored his sixth consecutive number one release with traditional sales of 852,000, making Views the highest-selling album of the year (16) to date. He also becomes the first male artist to debut with such huge numbers since Justin Timberlake's The 20/20 Experience shifted 968,000 units in 2013.

Tracks from Views, which were made available for streaming exclusively on Apple Music, were also played online a stunning 245.1 million times., more than doubling Justin Bieber's previous streaming milestone in 2015, when songs from Purpose racked up just over 100 million hits upon its debut.

Overall, the project earned 1.04 million equivalent album sales, the biggest sum of 2016 and the largest collective total since Adele shifted 1.19 million units of 25 in December (15).

Views easily dominates the new Billboard 200 countdown, with Beyonce's previous chart-topper, Lemonade, slipping into second place.

Prince's Purple Rain holds steady at three, while his The Very Best of Prince greatest hits collection falls from two to four following the legendary musician's death, and Rihanna's Anti rounds out the new top five, staying put in fifth place.