The Weeknd: Starboy opens at No. 1 on Billboard 200 and has record-breaking week on streaming platforms

Starboy earned the equivalent of 348,000 album sales

The Weeknd has stormed the charts with his new album Starboy and earned the third biggest debut of 2016, after Drake's Views and Beyonce's Lemonade.

Starboy opened at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart and earned the equivalent of 348,000 album sales - 209,000 of which were in traditional album sales.

According to The Fader, the album had a record-breaking first week on streaming platforms, reportedly raking in 400 million global streams during its first week of release, when including figures from Spotify, Apple Music, and other streaming platforms.

He also managed to break the record for first week streams, with more than 223 million listens in the first week - making him the number one artist on Spotify based on monthly listeners, which was a title previously held by Drake.

Starboy is only the second album to surpass 100,000 streaming equivelent album units in one week. Views by Drake actually managed this three times: once in its debut week, and a further two times in its third and four frames.

It debuted at No. 1 on iTunes in over 90 territories, and all 18 of the album's tracks debuted in the site's Top 20 list after The Weeknd appeared for his first on-camera interview with Zane Lowe on Beats I.

The Weeknd announced a Starboy: Legend of the Fall world tour for 2017, which includes two dates at London's 20,000 capacity 02 Arena during 'phase 1' of the tour.