Asake’s “M$NEY” Is Now the Biggest African Album Debut in Spotify History

With 55.98 million first-week streams globally, a No. 1 on Spotify’s global debut chart, and a top spot in the UK, Asake has rewritten the record books

Asake has delivered the biggest African album debut in Spotify history, and the full picture of what that means for him, for Afrobeats, and for the streaming era of African music is just marvelous.

To understand what M$NEY has just done, you need to know what it was up against. When Wizkid dropped Morayo in November 2024, it became the highest-opening-week African album on Spotify, pulling in around 52.8 million global streams in its first seven days. That was the ceiling. That was the number the industry pointed to whenever conversations came up about how big an African album could open on the platform.

M$NEY did not squeeze past it; it cleared it with room to spare. Asake’s fourth studio album finished its opening week with 55.98 million global Spotify streams, taking the record from Wizkid cleanly and planting its flag at the top. Who better to take over the record from the Starboy than the man who has idolized him all his life?

To say it plainly: the record for the biggest African album debut week on Spotify now belongs to Asake.

No. 1 on Spotify’s Global Debut Chart

M$NEY debuted at No. 1 on the Spotify Top Albums Debut Global chart, meaning that across every country Spotify operates in, no album made a stronger first-week impact. Not from North America, not from Europe, not from anywhere. Asake sat at the top of that chart, globally, in the same week his album dropped.

55.98 million Spotify streams were not concentrated in Nigeria or the diaspora alone. It spread. It connected. It registered across markets in a way that only happens when an album genuinely resonates across demographics.

The UK Chart Adds Another Layer of History

M$NEY also debuted at No. 1 on the Spotify Top Albums Debut UK chart, and that achievement carries its own weight of context. The UK has been one of Asake’s most reliable international strongholds, and the British audience has consistently shown up for his projects in ways that go beyond casual streaming.

This performance on Spotify arrived alongside a separate but equally significant milestone on Apple Music, where M$NEY made Asake the first African artist ever to have five albums reach No. 1 on the UK Apple Music chart. Two different platforms. Two chart-topping runs. The same country. At this point, the UK is just an extension of one of his homes.

A Career Built for Exactly This Moment

None of this landed from nowhere. Asake has been one of the most relentlessly productive artists in Nigerian music since he broke through in 2022, and the results have compounded year after year. He has been confirmed as the most-streamed artist of all time on Spotify Nigeria. He has topped the TurnTable End of the Year chart as Nigeria’s most-streamed artist every single year since he entered the mainstream. He holds two Grammy nominations and a string of Billboard chart entries.

M$NEY is also his first album released under his own independent imprint, GIRAN Republic, following his exit from YBNL Nation. The album dropped via GIRAN Republic and EMPIRE, and the fact that this record-breaking debut happened on an independently released project adds another dimension to what he has pulled off.

Asake is now the highest-charting African artist in the history of Spotify’s Global Top Artists chart, a position confirmed off the back of this album’s opening week alone. Every record an African artist sets at this level recalibrates what the next artist, the next album, the next debut believes is within reach.

55.98 million streams. No. 1 globally. No. 1 in the UK. The biggest African album debut in Spotify history. The first week of M$NEY is done, and it leaves behind an incredible feat, a record for others coming after to chase.

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