"WORK" could it be Rihanna's 14th number one in the US?

[Guest vivre sa vie]

Zayn currently overtakes Rihanna both in the US and UK. Yesterday it was announced that WORK had big stream numbers. So, does WORK have the potential to debut even at number one in the US?

[Morphine Prince 105,675]

Hopefully not. She should've released something that's actually good like Kiss It Better as the lead single. 

[PatrickMonster 6,408]

Love Yourself will be number one next week, Rih might snatch a top 10

[Kermit 15,807]

#JusticeforNeverEndingAsNextSingle

[Azor Ahai 18,861]

It's probably going to get a diamond certificate anytime now. Maybe Sony will buy 10 million copies  

[Fiona Apple 13,006]

It won't become a top 10 

[JackTheTripper 866]

if this is currently the best song on american charts, i dont want Gaga to even be charted ever again

[monketsharona 80,362]

Zayn is slaying her right now... The song is only getting red updates... So no it probably won't debute #1 

[Mark 4,065]

She better WORK, 3 years for that song.

 

 

[SummerBoy15 131]

26 minutes ago, Morphine Prince said:

Hopefully not. She should've released something that's actually good like Kiss It Better as the lead single. 

YES! that would've been her best bet! it's the best song on the album, but Work is still good, and it features Drake... so I won't doubt it too much!

[Miracle 14,068]

Lmao of course not.

Rihanna only had two days of sales since it was released on Tuesday.

She has probably sold around 100,000 copies and has an airplay of 32 million in 3 days (which is mediocre for a new song without Spotify or Youtube streaming). Stream may be huge but it doesn't have a VEVO video. She didn't even had Spotify She'll be lucky if she snatchs a top 10, even a top 15

 

 

 

[DiscoHeaven23 35,007]

Nope. not a chance. It used to be much easier a few years ago to get #1 debuts for big artists because there were only digital sales and radio. But now with streaming, it makes it much more complicated. Tidal doesn't report streams to Billboard so none of it will count. 

 

It was easier a few years ago because when u have an artist selling 500,000 copies, its percentage points make up for the fact that the song was only #15 on the radio that week (it takes time for songs to build a radio audience, no matter who you are), and therefore make the song number 1. But when u add streaming to that tally, it takes away from the percentage that digital sales has. This is why some artists have taken to releasing music videos the first week to get those streaming points and hopefully get a Top 10 or 5 debut. 

 

Here's an example: (these aren't the exact percentage points)

 

2011

Digital sales (50)

Radio (50%)

 

 

2016

Digital sales (33.3%)

Radio (33.3%)

Streaming (33.3%)

 

So you'll see its now harder for first week digital sales to get a song to #1, because it has less power

[Glory 2,247]

Bieber is too strong these days, and Zayn already overtook her...
Plus after a big start, it's not growing that much on radio today  +6.776

[Brian Ryan 1,468]

I hope so. It definitely deserves it. It's such a motivating song. I love Malik's song though.