LOS ANGELES: American singer Taylor Swift and English singer Adele may have boycotted streaming platforms when releasing their latest albums, but American rapper Kanye West proved the power of online consumption as The Life of Pablo debuted at the top of the US Billboard 200 album chart on the strength of streaming numbers.

The Life of Pablo, West’s seventh studio album and his seventh No 1 record on Billboard 200, sold 28,000 physical albums and was streamed 99 million times in the US, accounting for 66,000 album units, as per the figures from Nielsen SoundScan. The chart equates 1,500 streams as one album unit.

West first released Pablo on premium streaming service Tidal in February, which offered new subscribers a free trial before paying between $9.99 and $19.99 a month.

The rapper kept tweaking tracks and titles before making Pablo available on platforms such as Apple Music and Spotify last week. Spotify said Pablo was streamed 50 million times in the US last week, accounting for half of the overall streams.

Kanye West's success follows that of R&B singer Rihanna, whose Anti album topped the Billboard 200 chart in March with 17,000 physical album sales and 36 million streams, which accounted for 24,000 album units. Rihanna released Anti exclusively on Tidal in February before making it available on other streaming platforms.

The commercial value of streaming has been questioned by artistes such as pop singer Swift, who withheld her 1989 album from streaming platforms in 2014. British singer Adele also withheld her 25 album from streaming platforms.