Last February, a video of country singer Morgan Wallen surfaced which showed him using a racial slur with his friends. The video spurred major controversy and led to him being reprimanded by fellow country artists and banned from a few awards ceremonies. But despite the backlash from him using a racial slur, fans still listened to his sophomore album Dangerous: The Double Album so much that it was the most popular LP of 2021 by far when it comes to streaming.
MRC Data, a company which tracks and compiles music sales in the US, just released their year-end report for 2021. It shows that Wallen’s Dangerous, which was released in early January last year, finished 2021 with 3.226 million equivalent album units. Most of the album’s success was driven by streaming numbers, and seeing the LP boasted 30 songs, there were a lot of tracks available for fans to stream. Dangerous also spent 10 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, which was more than any other album from 2021.
Following behind Dangerous was Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour, which earned 2.856 million in 2021. Drake’s Certified Lover Boy came in third place, earning 1.970 million unites. Adele was behind Drake with 1.936 million units for her album 30, and Pop Smoke’s posthumous LP Shoot For The Stars Aim For The Moon came in at No. 5 with 1.533 million units.
While Dangerous was the most popular album of 2021, Dua Lipa had this year’s most-streamed track. Her song “Levitating,” which was actually released in 2020, earned 804.71 million streams this year alone, making it the most popular song of 2021.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.