Drake’s heavily-hyped, hotly-anticipated debut LP “Thank Me Later” is tracking for a solid opening sales week, but it currently is not on pace to completely change the game.
According to Billboard, the early tracking on “Thank Me Later” is 425,000-475,000 debut week sales. While such an opening would situate the album with Sade’s “Soldier of Love” (502,000) and Lady Antebellum’s “Need You Now” (481,000) as one of the best year-to-date performers, it would not live up to some of the rather lofty pre-release hopes and expectations.
Recently, rapper The Game offered a prediction of 650,000 opening week sales; Lil Wayne, meanwhile, said, “I need him to do more than ‘Tha Carter III.’ Like two million in the first week. I need him to do two million the first week, straight up.”
Billboard was quick to note that the album stands a chance of moving above the aforementioned 425-475,000 forecast by week’s end. But while that means 500,000 is certainly feasible, the possibility of Drake opening to the tune of one million or more is officially out of the question.
Update: First week sales, according to Hits Daily Double, were about 463,000. The final Billboard data will be printed Wednesday, but it will not differ significantly from the 463,000 figure.
