AceShowbiz - Kanye West’s latest album, Bully, has made a notable impact on the Billboard 200 chart despite the controversies surrounding its release.

The album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 with 152,000 equivalent units earned in its first week, according to Billboard data. Out of that total, 96,000 units came from streaming, which accounted for 98.43 million on-demand official streams, while the remaining 56,000 were traditional album sales.

Bully was kept from the top spot by K-Pop powerhouse BTS, whose 10th album ARIRANG earned 187,000 equivalent units in its second week after debuting at number one with 641,000 units. This marks the end of Kanye West’s impressive 21-year streak of number one solo albums. Bully is only his second solo album to miss the top spot since his 2004 debut The College Dropout, which also peaked at number two.

However, there is some debate over the official sales figures. Gamma., the distribution company founded by former Apple Music executive Larry Jackson that handled Bully, claims the album actually moved over 200,000 equivalent units in its first week. According to a breakdown shared on Gamma.’s Instagram Stories, the album generated a total of 200,997 units, which would have been enough to secure the number one position on the Billboard 200.

Neither Billboard nor Luminate, the analytics company behind the charts, have publicly responded to Gamma.’s claims. The discrepancy between the reported numbers has caused some speculation about the true commercial performance of Bully.

Despite already featuring a substantial 18 tracks, fans may expect more music soon. Gamma. teased an upcoming expanded edition of Bully on Instagram, announcing that a “Bully deluxe” version is on the way. Details such as the release date or the number of additional songs have not yet been disclosed.

Meanwhile, Kanye West’s scheduled headline performances at London’s Wireless Festival in July have sparked significant controversy due to his previous antisemitic remarks. Major sponsors, including Pepsi, PayPal, and Diageo, have withdrawn their support from the festival following backlash.

Political figures such as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and London Mayor Sadiq Khan have publicly expressed their concerns about the booking. Starmer described it as “deeply concerning” that West was invited to perform despite his history of antisemitic comments and associations with Nazism.

Despite the criticism, Kanye West recently completed two sold-out shows at Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium in support of Bully and is slated to headline all three nights of the Wireless Festival.

This article is based on reporting originally published by Hiphopdx.